Spirited Back
by Rio Grande
Summary: Just when it looks as though Chihiro, back in the real world, is about to take part in the worst summer of her life, a certain dragon re-enters the scene, and shows her a bath house that has changed for the worst. What can she do to help?
1. Default Chapter

Welcome to the revised version of chapter one, cleaned up and better than ever!  
  
For those of you who never saw the original chapter one - count yourselves lucky. This chapter was a disgrace to the rest of the story (as is chapter two, but that's a whole other issue.) so I tried to fix it up as best I could, and hopefully it shows a little.  
  
And just in case this is your first time with my fic (Actually. it probably is. Who would reread this chapter, anyway?) I decided to write this story in a moment of brilliance right after first seeing Spirited Away in theatres - a moment of brilliance that I have to admit has come and gone. Currently this story is in the middle of writer's block. Anyway, I loved the movie to death and wanted nothing more than to write a story that takes place in the near future where Chihiro is old enough to carry on a relationship with Kohaku, and decided that, while I was at it, I might as well give the fic a good plot as well. Thus - Spirited Back was born! There's going to be a lot of action and mystery, and a little bit of WAFF here and there because no story is complete without some good ol' mushy scenes.  
  
I don't own Spirited Away, and enjoy! *  
  
Spirited Back  
  
Rio Grande  
  
Chapter One: The Lonesome Summer.  
  
*  
Chihiro smiled hesitantly when Makato promised to keep in touch with her over the summer. She nodded when she promised to write her while she traveled to exotic and posh Paris, shopped like a maniac and saw the Eiffel Tower... and Chihiro was left to mope around the house and possibly get a job all summer. But... if there was one thing Chihiro had learned in the past four years... it was that promises were something even the best of people tended to forget about.  
  
"I'll write you, I really will, okay? So you write me too!" Makato gushed; gripping her best friend's hand almost painfully, as if the harder she squeezed the more Chihiro letters she could get out of the girl. Chihiro winced and shook her head.  
  
"Jeez Makato, I'll write, I'll write! Don't get so emotional, it's only two months!" she said, grinning anyway. Makato frowned and placed her hands on her hips at this declaration.  
  
"Two and a half." she corrected archly.  
  
"Whatever. Though, I guess I should be more worried than you about exactly how long the summer vacation is. Not that I'm not thrilled about it or anything, but..." Chihiro groaned, rubbing her head. "What am I gonna DO around here for nearly three months?"  
  
Traditionally, as was the norm for the past roughly four years, Chihiro and her family went on various little vacations all summer around Japan in their trusty little car, and Makato was always around at some point in the summer to hang out with when Chihiro came back. However, this year, the summer of eighth grade, things had taken a change for the worse in Chihiro's eyes, and her usually fun filled summer days suddenly looked bleak and far too lengthy for her liking.  
  
Her father, the lawyer, had just gotten a monumental case, and had assured his family that he would be busy for most of the summer in other parts of the country, attending court and working vigorously with his client. It was his first big break in years, and if he won this one, well, it was something to tell the grandkids about ... Chihiro wasn't sure of the details surrounding her father's new job, but the case was definitely a homicide of sorts. And Chihiro had been assured that it would do much to help with her college funding - an aspect to the situation that Chihiro had to admit she liked.  
  
In addition, Chihiro's aunt was encroaching upon her ninth month of pregnancy that season, and currently resembled a pale watermelon. To this, her lousy excuse for a husband was doing little to help with things around the house, which was simply horrendous considering the couple already had three little boys to watch over. So, naturally, Chihiro's mother volunteered to help her sister get around and function for the next month or so, playing part supportive sibling, part nanny, and agreeing to stay with her most days until the new baby was born, and possible a little bit longer after that.  
  
This, of course, meant there would be little to no vacationing for the Oginos.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure it won't be as bad as you're making it out to be. Maybe you'll get a job with Mr. Takana." Makato said, referring to the local ice- cream shoppe owner, and shrugging helplessly. Chihiro sighed and folded her arms. It was all so easy for her to say - after all, it wasn't Makato's problem.  
  
"I guess, but I don't want it to ruin my love for ice cream. I heard you can get pretty sick of it once you start working with it every day for around seven hours," Chihiro pointed out, brown eyes flashing as other possibilities for summer jobs danced through her head. She figured if she was going to be stuck at home for two and half months, why not make some money? It wasn't as if she wanted, or terribly needed cash at that point in time, but it was always a good idea to save up.  
  
"Point. But, on the other hand, you just MIGHT be busy all summer WRITING me, so you won't have time work, anyway!" Makato teased, flipping a lock of sleek raven hair over her shoulder. Makato was a pale girl, with long black hair and chestnut colored eyes. She was about two inches taller than Chihiro, and her father was a wealthy businessman - she and Chihiro had first met almost directly after Chihiro had entered her new school.  
  
"Oh, right," Chihiro sighed, wrapping her own caramel colored ponytail around her finger slowly. In all the years since she had moved to this small town and become best friends with Makato, her hairstyle and personal style in general, hadn't changed overly much. Makato called it adorable; Chihiro called it a lazy act of blatant immaturity, not bothering to beat around the bush when it came to analyzing herself.  
  
The two school girls finally reached Chihiro's house (First blue one on the left...) and exchanged a brief, if not slightly teary, goodbye, before Makato spun on her heal and dashed on down the road with no further comment, where her parents and two elder sisters would no doubt be waiting impatiently for her arrival. They had places to go after all... France... Gay Pari... the city of romance. it all seemed like another world to Chihiro, suddenly, who realized she was facing many, many weeks of diligently reading TV guide and really getting to know her neighborhood. She sighed as Makato finally made the turn around the road, and was completely out of sight. Only then did Chihiro turn to enter her house, the summer officially on.  
  
"Hey, I'm home!" Chihiro called out as she entered her home and threw her book bag to the ground with a slow sense of finality to her movements. Now, she knew that bag would patiently wait in the same place by the door for the next couple months, until it was needed once more. The ever-present weight off her shoulders brought a small, brief grin to her features.  
  
In addition, Chihiro made a point of not locking the door. If she got robbed this summer, it would probably be the most exiting thing that would happen to her, after all. Not that it would. Her small town was notably safe and non-violent, a wholesome place where everyone knew everyone. The Police in her neighborhood were more likely to see a flying pig than a murder in these parts, and most homicidal detectives within a fifty-mile radius sat around watching the grass grow and the paint chip off their cop cars. Even her father's important new case was a big out of towner.  
  
"Hey sweetie," her dad called from the living room, where he sat, flipping through some legal documents Chihiro felt no need to ever question him about. She had read over some of it once, and found it was dead boring. Best to leave him at it. "How was the last day of school?"  
  
"Oh, you know, fine." she said, shrugging and leaning against the wall with her hands linked behind her back, watching her father quietly.  
  
"Happy summer's finally here?"  
  
"Sure," she commented, now sounding bored and perhaps a little despondent.  
  
"Well, that's good... Hey, would you make dinner tonight? Your Mom's already up at Aunt Ritsuko's today, and I'm sort of flogged..."  
  
"Sure." Over the years- four, to be exact - Chihiro's parents had found that they could suddenly rely on Chihiro to carry out manual and every day tasks, that she used to struggle with. It seemed as though moving away from home had given her a real sense of strength and independence, because ever since they moved to their new town, she had been doing so much on her own, with so much enthusiasm..! Chihiro had never dared to tell anyone why she had had such a transformation after moving. She really doubted anyone would ever believe her if she did, anyway.  
  
Four years... four years was a long time. Long enough for her grow older, more self-sufficient, and less naive... yet stay the same all at the same time. Sure, she was a lot more capable and in control of herself then she had been when she had stumbled upon Yu-Baba's bath house, Aburaya, in that odd spirit world with all of her old friends... but at the same time, four years was definitely not enough time to rid her of her big heart and selfless disposition... not enough time to let her forget and move on... not enough time to disregard broken promises...  
  
'Will I see you often?'  
  
'Of course. It's a promise. Now go, and don't look back!'  
  
Chihiro shook her head and grabbed the pot she had been looking for, mentally dusting her brain off of painful memories, but suddenly finding herself swamped with them anyway.  
  
In the beginning, it had been hard. Terrible. Frustrating. Agonizingly painful, to think that Haku, transformed into his original form of Kohaku, had not been sincere in his promise, when he didn't show up to surprise the all too eager Chihiro with his appearance in the human world, those first few months. Though she had kept a consistent look out for her green eyed friend, there had been no sign of him, and, what's more, once SHE started trying to find him, no sign of the wrong path she and her lost family had taken that first day, was to be found, either. The path that led to the spirit world... was gone.  
  
So, after that disturbing little discovery, another wave of uncertainties hit the girl with a vengeance. What if he was hurt? What if Yu-Baba wasn't satisfied with Chihiro's show of heart, had taken her best friend, and was torturing him? Turning him into a pig like she had done her parents, and eating him?! The thought plagued Chihiro many a day, and night, even though she had been so sure that her positive change on the spirit community of the bath house had been permanent... she really didn't know what low levels Yu-Baba would stoop to. Not that Yu-Baba was all evil, Chihiro knew that, it was just... what other reasons for Kohaku's absence could there be?  
  
And then the last part of the terrible feelings came, and Chihiro forced herself to forget. Her social life in the real world was suffering, her academic life couldn't afford any more distraction, and she needed to move on. If he hadn't shown up in a year, well, maybe Kohaku and all of her friends would never be coming to see Chihiro, and she had to accept that, since she could not find them... and not for lack of trying, either.  
  
She had even taken out her maps and looked up where the Kohaku river used to be, found it in a town about two hours away from her current one, went to visit it and - found nothing. No Kohaku, no spirits, no dragons, nothing. And it had hurt. It had hurt so much Chihiro knew right then and there she couldn't go on waiting and yearning to see all of the odd and fascinating people she had once known, ever again. Even her hopeful, confused eleven-year-old self realized that a year was enough, and other priorities had to come first. So, she had blown one last kiss to the filled up and now dead river she had insisted her parents drag her to... and that next day... she bought a new pair of sneakers, her old pink and yellow ones carefully tucked away in a box somewhere in the basement. She hadn't looked at them since.  
  
And here she was now, overcome with a strange feeling of nostalgia for no apparent reason, thinking it a bit funny how desperately she had wanted to get out of Aburaya when she was there, and how much she wanted to go back now that she was 'stuck' in her own world.  
  
"Hey, how does oden* sound to you, Dad?" Chihiro called to her (still slightly over weight) father, who was fastidiously going over seemingly reams of paper spread out around the living room. Chihiro had to give him major brownie points in the area that, well, he really WAS trying to work hard.  
  
"Sound wonderful sweetie. Thanks!" her dad replied, a bit absent- mindedly. Chihiro simply smiled and got to work. She had come to look upon slacking off and whining as silly, childish actions ever since she had worked at the bathhouse, and never complained about the tasks she was given to do. They were all simply so much easier then cleansing a polluted river spirit of its heavy layers of muck, all while trying to pull an entire garbage dump out of its side, after all. In any case, her parents really did appreciate it.  
  
*  
  
'Day three, and already I'm so bored I think I may die if something the least bit interesting doesn't happen to me right... now!' Chihiro thought to herself, snapping her head to the side, and glancing at the mirror as she desperately pleaded for something to happen. Anything! But her prayers were not answered, and when she looked in her small mirror, sitting innocently on her dresser, she just saw plain old Chihiro. Nothing spectacular there. Just plain. Plain. Chihiro sighed and looked down. She wanted to be something more. Something better.  
  
Following up on Makato's suggestion, Chihiro had taken a job at Mr. Takana's ice cream shoppe... and immediately afterwards found herself regretting it. Ice cream scooping was a not only tedious and nerve-racking job (she had already dropped three scoops, had two cones slip out of her hand, messed up a ridiculous amount of orders, and if she ever saw hot fudge again she MIGHT gag.) but it also required a lot of arm muscles she found her self lacking. Not to mention there was a very difficult technique to achieving the perfectly shaped ice cream scoop, (As the assistant manager, a pimply and obnoxious boy named Akura, had pointed out to her in a haughty tone.) and Chihiro was having a hard time forming it. Most of her cones looked slightly deformed and upsetting, and she knew it.  
  
'Oh well, practice makes perfect!' Chihiro assured herself, a little upset that her big goal for the summer was learning how to scoop ice cream properly.  
  
It was at times like these, times when life looked so astoundingly boring and infinitely normal... that Chihiro wondered if she had in fact ever REALLY been to the spirit bath house... or if she hadn't just dreamed the whole marvelous tale up...and it was at times like THOSE... that she took out her hair elastic.  
  
She wore the sparkly purple accessory nearly every day unless she absolutely couldn't, and found her self pleased with the fact that it was pretty sturdy and had held up famously these past four years. It still glittered happily, never stretching out too much, and every time she looked at it, as Yu-Baba's twin sister, Granny, had said... it reminded her of the friendships she had had back in the Spirit world. After all, it had been her friends love that had made this hair tie... and, in addition, it was proof that the whole adventure hadn't been just some farcical tail she had made up to amuse herself. THAT made her smile.  
  
Releasing her hair from its upright position, and then looking down to stare at the ever present hair tie, laying innocently in her pale hand, Chihiro found herself sighing once more and then turning yet again to look at her reflection in that damned mirror. Hm. That's odd. She looked... almost pretty with her hair down. But, Chihiro wasn't pretty. She was just plain. Plain boring.  
  
'Maybe I should wear it down more often.' she wondered thoughtfully, while pressing down on the almost permanent kink in her hair, formed from wearing her hair in a ponytail too much.  
  
Her mother was staying over at her aunt's that night, and her father was out of town to see some witnesses, so Chihiro found herself all alone in the house that evening, and not really minding it. Her parents were so busy now a day, even when they were at home, it didn't seem like they really cared what she was thinking about, or how she felt. It was SUMMER after all, and if there was no school, her problems couldn't be that bad anyway, was their theory.  
  
Feeling slightly swamped with the heavy heat of the night, Chihiro got up to go open her window, feeling sudden, sweet relief as a cool summer breeze hit her the second the window pane separating her and the outside was taken care of. She cocked her head and stared up at the moon, drinking in the dark forest around her house, her loosed hair drifting peacefully around her face. What a beautiful place. Not particularly INTERESTING, she acknowledged with a small wrinkling of the nose, but lovely nonetheless...  
  
Soon, Chihiro had almost completely lost herself in the beauty and sheer mystery of the large, full moon above her head - its pulsing, pure white light entrancing her. Twirling her elastic around her finger leisurely, she hummed softly to herself and kept her eyes glued to the moon, her peripheral vision nagging at her brain while her eyes began to droop close, telling her something softly. warning her about the snake like form drifting just to the side of the moon. dancing. Wait.  
  
"Dragon!" she nearly shrieked, covering her mouth, eyes as wide as ping- pong balls. Quickly scrubbing at her face to make sure she wasn't just imagining it, Chihiro found herself shaking with delight as she realized she really WAS seeing a white dragon, flying past the moon, spinning through air so smoothly there seemed to be an invisible rode beneath it. And it resembled Kohaku so completely... it was, must, be... him!  
  
"Kohaku!" Chihiro called out, cupping her mouth, and not caring what slumbering neighbors were roused to the sound of her loud voice. "Kohaku! Down here! I'm down here come and get me! Please!" she added, almost pathetically. It was true - part of her was mad at the green eyed boy, but the larger part of her just wanted to have the dragon come down and sweep her off her feet, whisking her to the Aburaya in a flurry of magic. This moment, this situation, was what she had dreamed of for four years. And now. "Kohakuuu!"  
  
She might have just imagined it, though most likely not, but it seemed as though at that moment, Kohaku really DID hear her, as a flash of green met watery brown, and there was a silent, happy connection. All this just before the long, wispy white dragon did a nimble U-turn in mid air, diving down towards the ground at incredibly high speeds, almost as if it were now running from something - almost as if it were scared. He disappeared into the dense, dark forest beneath him, not even making a sound as his sleek body completely disappeared from sight.  
  
"No!" Chihiro cried, slapping a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. "No, don't go!" she pleaded, turning on her heal and rushing out of the room, desperate to find her friend. He wouldn't leave her, not again, not this time! She scurried down the stairs, barely giving herself time to slip on her sneakers and socks, before bursting out the front door, unlocked as always, and leaping down the road, keeping in mind the whole while exactly where she had seen the beautiful dragon dive down to. She didn't even mind the fact that she was wearing nothing but a long, white tee shirt that reached her knees, and had a happy picture of a cartoon sun on it. All that mattered was that she found Kohaku... found the spirit world again!  
  
Her breath was coming out in harsh puffs already as she stumbled and tripped her way through the forest, wishing she had been smarter and brought a flash light, while slapping errant tree branches away from her face as her legs pumped as fast as they could, desperately pumping forward.  
  
"I'm coming... don't go... don't leave me... I'll find you... I'm coming..." she chanted under her breath as she continued to run through the forest that had no path and was rarely used. The small teenaged girl was in the depths of the local forest now, a place she could get easily lost in, she knew, and with no one to find her until the following night when her parents returned. But it seemed as though all common sense had been thrown out the window in a moment of sheer and undiluted desperation.   
  
She nearly fell flat on her face as she threw herself across a clear, clean path, continuing to run and keep a sharp eye out for any large, magical looking creatures... when she halted herself and abruptly doubled back to the path she had barely acknowledged first time around. She was panting with her hands on her knees, when she looked up to see just what path she had stumbled upon... jaw nearly crashing to the ground as she realized JUST what path she had stumbled upon!  
  
It was the entrance. It was the shrine! The place her parents had found that first day when her father had been a reckless driver and nearly crashed them into an abandoned amusement park, four years ago!  
  
It was the way to get to the Spirit World. And the Bath House.  
  
Her heart thudded heavily in her chest as she weighed the intelligence of simply hurling herself through the entrance, blessing her good luck, and happily finding all of her old friends, and possibly spending a fun filled summer with them... against maybe going back home, getting a flash light, not wandering around alone at night, and not trying to get herself into a lot of trouble...Hm.  
  
Just barely keeping herself from squealing with delight, Chihiro threw her self into the entrance, past the stone figure of an odd looking spirit she distinctly remembered had scared her the first time around. But no more. Now everything, from the dark hallways, tall stone walls and broken wooden benches scattered about the inside - everything seemed thrilling and wonderfully familiar to her.  
  
'I can't believe this is happening!' Chihiro thought, a large smiled slapped haphazardly on her face. 'I'm really going back! It's unreal!'  
  
And, as she finally reached the other end of the old amusement park entrance, finding herself greeted with the sight of the large river that had occupied the spirit world at night... Chihiro realized that maybe it WAS unreal.  
  
"No! How am I supposed to get across that river!?" she wondered frantically, slapping her hands to her head and feeling her heart plummet into her stomach. She looked up briefly to the sky, hoping to find a pure white dragon soaring helpfully above her, ready to fly her to the bath house - but, much to her despair, there was nothing to be found but a dark sky speckled with stars.  
  
Put out, Chihiro stomped along the shoreline, kicking up rocks from the damp grass below her feet, and determined to get to the bathhouse even if she had to swim there. Last time she had been to this place, there had been no large river there to block her, and she and her parents had simply walked all the way to the Bath House, skipping over rocks... she supposed the river only came out at night... or was only visible to those not still ignorant in the ways of the Spirit World.  
  
'Last time I was here, I ended up FLYING away... but that was with Kohaku... I don't think I can do it anymore, at least not on my own.' she sighed, folding her arms and thinking deeply, gazing out across the shimmering body of water placed before her. In the distance she saw a building with bright lights of all different colors, radiating warmth, and new instinctively it was Aburaya. It was so close! She hadn't been so close to it, or anything remotely like it, in years! Yet... it was still too far away.  
  
"Damn you Kohaku, where are you!?" she called to the sky, having picked up the habit of lightly cursing occasionally from her new friends at school. "... Where are you? Why did you leave me?" she asked in a bit of a more demure tone. Why wasn't he there yet? Was he avoiding her? No... No he couldn't be...  
  
'RRRROOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!'  
  
"Hu!?" Chihiro gasped, startled out of her deep thoughts by a sudden noise to her left. "Oh my God, where did that come from!?" she croaked, staring at the large ferry now a mere twenty feet away from her, its red bulk shining proudly in the moon light, as it gave off another blow of its fog horn. Chihiro had seen this boat before, it had come to the Bath House the first night she had been stuck in the Spirit World, and she knew for a fact that it transported the Bath House customers to it.  
  
It was perfect.  
  
"This is great, I'll just get a ride to the Bath House on this thing!" Chihiro squealed happily, jogging towards the ferry, not giving a thought as to how it appeared in front of her, and watching as a variety of odd looking, shadowy and marshmellow-esque beings lumbered onto the gently rocking boat. Seeing their odd faces, and feeling their strange auras, brought an almost overwhelming surge of nostalgia through her. She contained her nervousness with a broad smile, skipping up the ramp. She was almost there!  
  
Her cheery disposition was stunted a bit when she saw the spirits were handing the ferryman money, and realized with wide eyes that she had nothing of value on her that would constitute as enough to get her a ride. Nearly slapping her head with frustration, unable to believe that yet another obstacle had been presented before her, she approached the ferryman cautiously as her turn came around.  
  
"That'll be one gold piece," a rather nasal, young sounding voice blew out, its actual body compiled of a large, baggy ferry-man jacket, some gloves, and a pair of slacks that drifted casually, a few centimeters off the ground. He had no face to speak of. Chihiro winced. Uh-oh.  
  
"Well... see I don't actually have any money on me," Chihiro started cautiously.  
  
"No money, no ride," the spirit staff member of the haunted ferryboat, pointed out helpfully.  
  
"Yes, I know, but you see..." Chihiro said, fumbling with her words and getting desperate. "I work for Yu-Baba at the bath-house, and she sent me on an errand... and told me to be back as soon as possible! But I have to money to get back now, and If I don't get these supplies to her she will be furious! The whole night could be ruined for these customers you are trying to get across the river!" Chihiro finished, fists clenched in front of her, and silently marveling at her own lying skills. Since when had she gotten so good? Well, it was either get to the Aburaya or be tortured to death by an agonizingly dull summer, so maybe it was her survival skills coming into play. The ferryman looked at Chihiro silently, running what she had said over in his mind. Toughy.  
  
"...What supplies? I don't see anything on you," he said, suspiciously. Chihiro gulped, mind cranking at alarming speeds as she tried to come up with an answer for that one. "Besides, doesn't she have oni for that sort of job? You're just a human." The ferryman added, spitting out 'human' as though it were a sort of disease.  
  
'Oni?' thought Chihiro, frowning. Yu-Baba definitely didn't hire demons to be her henchmen, last time she checked... but, maybe things had changed? "Um, well, see, I'm a special human worker for Yu-Baba... I go to the human world and fetch things for her." she said, firmly.  
  
"But what kind of things? I don't see anything on you!" the ferry-man insisted, even though the other passengers who wanted to get on the boat were starting to protest from behind Chihiro. The fourteen year old mentally groaned at the ferryman's abundant curiosity, but complied anyway.  
  
"Oh ... you know... just the normal stuff... radios, micro chips, cell phones, online connections..." Chihiro said, struck with a sudden inspiration, and ticking of the list of supplies for Yu-Baba on her hand. "Just the normal stuff every bath-house needs from the human world! Everyone knows that! But, you can't SEE these things on me, because they're ... imprinted in the ... memory chip... in my brain... naturally!" Chihiro said, trying to sound as honest as possible, while smothering a smile. The ferryman looked, as hoped, quite baffled, and maybe a little awkward. Was she a sly one, or what?  
  
"Naturally!" he agreed quickly, everything Chihiro had just said having gone way over his head. "I mean. of course, I knew that. Just wanted to make sure, you know. The security is tight these days for the Bathhouse, in any case. Now... um... go along, and we'll charge this ride to Yu-Baba." he said, shooing her along quickly so he could attend to the other customers, obviously glad to be rid of her.  
  
'Oh, Yu-Baba's gonna love THAT! She'll probably make me work it off!' Chihiro thought sadly, but smiled politely at the ferryman's invisible face anyway, even though he chose not to acknowledge mortal scum like her. The spirits had a thing about humans. But hey, who didn't?  
  
Relieved that the small ordeal was over, Chihiro chose a place on the deck to sit down and stare out into the distance and eye the Aburaya's blinking lights that created a mist of pink light over it, instead of taking shelter inside the ferry's indoor cafe and bed cars. They were hardly going far, anyway. They would be there within fifteen minutes, for sure! The mere thought brought shivers down Chihiro's spine, though it might just have been the wind, since the ferry was now steadily chugging across the river. Chihiro's eyes stayed locked on the Bath House the whole while.  
  
'I wonder how everyone's doing? Is Kamajii okay? Still whining about being stuck in the boiler room, no doubt. I'm sure he'll be eager to hear from his granddaughter, though!' Chihiro giggled to herself, thinking of spider spirit, who also happened to fuel the heated water for all of the baths  
  
'And what about Rin? She said she had wanted to get away from the Bath House, back then, but maybe with the transformation in everyone, she decided to stay... I hope so; I really want to see her again. Oh! And I have to see No-Face and Granny too! Maybe they'll make me another hair tie if I take a train out to visit them!' she wondered happily, reminding herself not to be greedy. Hair ties made of your friends love wasn't something easily come-upon, anyway.  
  
Glancing down at her hands suddenly, Chihiro bit her lip. 'Not to mention... I have to see Kohaku! I want to know why he just disappeared tonight... and... And why he hasn't visited me!' she added, realizing she was possibly still a little bit angry with her mysterious friend for leaving her in the lurch all of these years... even with all of the excitement at the thought of just getting to SEE everybody again - that boy had some answering to do!  
  
So wrapped up in her thoughts, and ideas of what she would do first, who she was to see first, (Was the baby still taking the form of a mouse from time to time?) if she would work again, (OH! And what about the soot spirits? The Susuwatari? Still working hard?) and then wondering with a little bit of worry if anyone would remember her at all!- she didn't have time to see what collided with the boat, head on, until she was already thrown onto her back, gasping as the wind was knocked out of her.  
  
All around the stunned Chihiro, suddenly, frantic spirits were dashing about the boat, screaming and flailing their hands, worried as any common human would be. Their cries reminded Chihiro she had to get up, and, rubbing her sore back, she did - just in time to hear whatever had hit the boat begin to roar with anger from underneath her. The sound was powerful and reverberated from all around her, shaking the boat a bit more as it swayed to and fro, and splashing large amounts of water onto the deck.  
  
Whatever had collided with them was inside, below, and making its way to the main deck from beneath them!  
  
Leaping to her feet, and trying to make her way around the masses of spirits all charging towards the lifeboats, while crewmembers desperately tried to keep the peace, Chihiro wondered just what would want to attack a spirit ferry. They didn't have anything valuable with them, did they?  
  
"Excuse me, excuse me, sorry! Excuse me-OUCH! Hey! Uhn! Please, let me through, what's going on, what hit us?" Chihiro asked, elbowing her way through the crowd, which was going the exact opposite direction Chihiro wanted to go... away from the source of the noise and panic. It never once occurred to Chihiro that she might want to avoid the danger, as well.  
  
"Hey, what's going on here!?" Chihiro demanded of a crewmember, a sturdier looking one than her old, nasal friend. His crisp jacket turned quickly to her, speaking in harsh, clipped tones.  
  
"What are you doing here? You should be getting to a lifeboat, miss. We have a dangerous, wild creature on our hands here. Don't worry, we'll handle it, just go!" he said, pushing her along her way.  
  
'Dangerous creature?' she repeated in her head, turning to look at what the man was referring to, even as he continued to shove her down the deck. The answer was revealed to her as the 'creature' made its way to the surface of the deck, splintering the wood and batting off a few ferrymen with a violent whipping of its radiant head, clawing its way up.  
  
"Kohaku!!" she cried, slipping out of the tall ferry-man's grasp when he least expected it, and dashing forwards, towards Kohaku who still in his dragon form, quickly throwing all caution to the wind. At the sound of her exited voice, his head whipped to the side, and his large green eyes, mean looking with his current body, caught hers. There was a slight pause in his movement, before he ripped himself from the hard grips of the frightened ferrymen and lunged at her.  
  
For a frightening moment Chihiro thought he was going to eat her as his gigantic mouth snapped open - but as his head swooped just above hers, en route to the sky, and one of his many powerful, clawed arms delicately snatched her up with him, she realized she never had anything to worry about. Kohaku would never harm a hair on her head. They were best friends! Or... at least... they had been.  
  
Within the grips of a strong dragon, zipping through the air away from her sinking ferryboat, going at obviously unreasonably fast speeds, it occurred to Chihiro that perhaps now was a good time to start getting worried about her current situation. Something was incredibly off about this whole situation.  
  
However, even through her dark haze of doubt, Chihiro couldn't help but grin a bit. She had done it! She was back! With him! She let out a soft whoop for joy as the dragon neared the land, heading for, surprisingly, a dense clump of forest that was part of the woods that surrounded the Bath House, instead of just directly into one of Aburaya's windows, as she had seen the dragon do before.  
  
"Kohaku?" she questioned, as he gently placed her down near a dark clump of bushes, and then backed away from her so he could properly look the girl in the eye. His dragon face looked just as fierce as ever with his long face and glimmering fangs, but it didn't scare her.  
  
'I'm standing in front of Kohaku... after four years I'm really doing it.' she thought numbly, chocolate brown eyes wide. They both stood as they were, gaze never straying far from each other, even as they gave one another a once over, in total silence, for at least a minute. Then... forgetting everything she had fretted about, everything she had mulled over, all of her reservations about being not TOO friendly with this boy who had broken his promise!.. Chihiro let out an almost wail of glee, and flung herself at the silver dragon, latching onto his large head and hugging his head so tightly to her she wouldn't have been too surprised if the poor boy had a hard time breathing.  
  
She felt tears of joy prickle her eyes when the soft head nuzzled her back, a low, happy growl forming in the back of his throat. So what if he nearly destroyed her ferry? They were friends, and they were together again. That's what counted.  
  
And, as she held him in her grasp for a while longer, she felt his head begin to shrink, his fur retreat back into his skin, and be replaced by warm, grateful flesh. Suddenly her hands could touch each other again, and she was no longer embracing a large muzzle of a dragon, but the waist of a boy. A very attractive, mysterious, and familiar boy, at that.  
  
"Oh, Kohaku!" she cried into his shirt, overwhelmingly happy. He didn't look as if he'd aged, or changed, a day! But - did River Gods age, in the first place?  
  
"Chihiro," he said, adoration in his tone as his arms went around her shoulders, and he laid his head in the crook of her neck. She felt his silky black hair brush her shoulders, his breath tickle the hairs on her neck, and it only made everything that much more real. "I've missed you so much," he said, his voice so full of emotion and pain it almost gave Chihiro pause. However, she didn't have time to dwell on his upset tone, because, at that moment, he wrenched himself away from her, taking the surprised girl by the shoulders, and staring deeply into her eyes. This pleased her, though she wasn't sure why. "I've missed you so much, you can't even imagine, but... but you can't be here! I don't know why you followed me but you must go back! Now!"  
  
Well, whatever Chihiro had been anticipating just then, it wasn't THAT.  
  
"Excuse me?" she croaked in disbelief. She didn't want to go back! No way! She had just gotten here! She had just FOUGHT to get back here!  
  
"You MUST go back," Kohaku insisted. "Things are not what they seem, and you are no longer safe in the spirit world!"  
Author's Notes:  
  
So I didn't do any MAJOR revisions - no plot changes, I didn't cut anything and I didn't really add many paragraphs. but there were quite a few messy sentences and grammatical errors I attended to. It may not be much, but I think rereading this chapter helped me get back into the Spirited Away 'zone' a little - a place I really need to have full access to in order to write chapter seven or six or whichever one's next. Thanks for reading and please review!!  
  
  
  
-Rio Grande 


	2. Tainted Spirits

Hey! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and encouraged me to write this next chapter. Things are going to get a little weird from here on out, so please tell me what you think of the story!  
  
BUT, first there are some critical misspellings I have to work with here. It has been pointed out to me that you spell it Kohaku, and not Ohaku. which is what I thought originally! But nooo. my friend was all like, no way girl, its Kohaku! So I BELIEVED HER! AHHH!.But it's okay, it's cool. I'm not mad. (Valiantly ignores spasmodic eye twitching.) From now on, it'll be Kohaku. Sorry!  
  
Oh. And someone said I spelled Chihiro wrong in the summary. Why didn't anyone tell me sooner!? Thank you, whoever pointed it out!  
  
Last but not least: I don't own Spirited Away, (Does anyone know when it comes out on video?) (Ah! I can't wait!) and enjoy!  
  
  
  
Spirited Back  
  
By Rio Grande  
  
Chapter Two: Tainted Spirits.  
  
"You MUST go back," Kohaku insisted. "Things have changed, and now you're in grave danger!"  
  
"Ah.heh. Kohaku, what are you talking about?" Chihiro asked, in as pleasant a voice as she could muster. Oh why oh why did things NEVER turn out the way she thought they would?  
  
"Chihiro, I-" Kohaku started, his arms still placed firmly on her shoulders. Suddenly, his head whipped to the side, and he seemed to be looking out into the forest, eyes narrowed dangerously. Chihiro cautiously turned to look at what he was staring at, but found, not so surprisingly, absolutely nothing. Just the quiet forest, rustling with activity, dark and mysterious as ever. "We have to get out of here." Kohaku whispered fiercely.  
  
"Whhaaaatt!" Chihiro wailed as she suddenly found herself being dragged along by Kohaku, into the deep woods themselves. However, unlike the woods that surrounded her home, this forest was different, magical. Chihiro could feel the mystical difference in the air, and she shivered at the feel of it. She hadn't realized she had missed feeling like this, like she could do anything if she tried hard enough, so much. "Kohaku, please tell me where we're going, and what's wrong!" Chihiro pleaded, struggling not to topple over and Kohaku swiftly and nimbly darted through the woods, just as graceful and powerful seeming as she remembered him being. If he didn't slow down, Chihiro didn't know how much longer it would be until she tripped over her own feet and broke something.  
  
"There's a tainted spirit out there. Most likely after me. I don't think She knows you're here yet."  
  
"Who? Yu-Baba?" Chihiro asked. She had thought she had settled things with that woman! She had been so sure!  
  
"Hm, I wish." Kohaku cursed, pausing enough so that he could grab Chihiro under her knees and arms, to carry her the rest of the way. He obviously realized that Chihiro wasn't cut out for speed like that, and Chihiro was thankful for it, if not a little embarrassed that he was holding her so close.  
  
Chihiro had never had a boyfriend before. She had never wanted one. And when she had first come to the bath-house, she had only been ten years old, and certainly not interested in things like that, especially not with her best friend, Haku. But now that she was older, and more mature, looking back on it. she and Kohaku HAD been pretty close. and he really was handsome. it was true that he hadn't aged at all since she last saw him, (Did spirits age?) but he had a sort of an ageless look. He could have been twelve years old, but at the same time, maybe seventeen.Well, however old, Chihiro suddenly found herself blushing deeply at the thought of Kohaku ever liking her like THAT! Yeah right, he was a river God! He probably didn't even know what a girlfriend was! And now was certainly not the time to be dwelling on such things. She turned her head so that the cool night wind blew her hair from her face, and she could get a better look at just where Kohaku was lifting her away to. However, everything just seemed to be a long dark blur. how fast were they going?!  
  
Abruptly, Kohaku stopped in a clearing, with a small, gurgling creek running through it. He placed Chihiro down, not even out of breath, and looked back out into the distance. Worry lines were etched on his impossibly perfect face, and Chihiro collapsed to the mossy ground, still winded from running earlier. She looked up at him questioningly.  
  
"Kohaku, what are we running away from?" Then it seemed that, for the first time, Kohaku realized that this might all be distressing the young girl very much, and he smiled down on her kindly.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I shouldn't have visited you tonight. I should have known you would have come to look for me. And on the full moon, when the spirit world is the most active! I was such a fool," he smiled bitterly. "But I had to see you. Sometimes. I just have to see you. Things are so painful around here." As flattered as she was that Kohaku just 'Had to see her', Chihiro was also terribly lost. Okay, there was definitely some unusual stuff going on in the Bath House, and it had Kohaku pretty upset. She didn't like that, generally. Now, the real question was, just what was wrong? And why wasn't he telling her?  
  
"Kohaku, that's great, I've missed you too, but just WHAT is happening here? Crashing my boat? Running through the woods, some phantom woman who's after you...? I'm really confused here." Kohaku looked at her, taking one hand and running it through her hair, smiling warmly, as though he were reserving that grin, just for her. It made Chihiro feel strangely calmed, and immensely happy. There was a disconcerting, bubbly feeling in her chest.  
  
"Someone new has taken over the bath-house," he said quietly.  
  
"Who!?" Bubbly feeling? Gone.  
  
"Lady Tiko. She." he considered which word could possibly describe this wretched woman. ".She's evil. And she's after me. By staying here with me, like this, you're putting yourself in grave danger. That's why you must leave. Go back to your world!" he encouraged. But Chihiro would have none of it. She shook her head firmly, the beginnings of tears forming in her sparkling eyes.  
  
"No! Kohaku I wont leave you to be hunted down by some evil woman! Why would you think I'd abandon you? My best friend! We're still friends, aren't we?" Kohaku took Chihiro's hand, holding it tightly, his smooth voice doing wonders for her nerves.  
  
"Of course. Always. But friends don't let friends get killed. And there's a tainted spirit coming this way. so I don't want you to be injured. Please, please listen to me. If you wont go home . follow this creek down as far as you can, stay along it, and when you reach the large tree at the end of it, knock three times on it's bark and ask to be let in. Don't look at me like that! I'll catch up with you as soon as I can, but until then it's up to you to stay out of trouble. These safe forests aren't what they once were, and if you get in trouble, I don't know if I'll be able to get to you in time. Do you understand?" By this point Chihiro was all out sobbing. This WASN'T how she imagined her trip back was going to be like. She felt as though she were in some sort of WAR movie, not her beloved spirit world! The hand Kohaku held in his own shook so badly he squeezed it tightly for comfort, his own heart wrenching at the sight of Chihiro so distressed.  
  
But there it was . coming closer .  
  
"Chihiro go! It's almost on top of us!" he ordered, letting go of her hand to stand in front of her protectively.  
  
"No! I won't leave you!" she insisted, still shaking from head to toe, and still sitting on her butt.  
  
"But you must! I promise we'll see each other again! Just go! Follow the creek!" he ordered.  
  
"No way, that's what you said last time, and I didn't see you for FOUR YEARS!" she cried, really getting his attention. He turned his head back to her, his eyes filled with so much grief, she almost reconsidered the intelligence of saying those harsh things to him at a time like this.  
  
"I'm so sorry I never came to see you," he said, his voice thick with anguish. "I wanted to. for all these years I wanted to, and I never forgave myself for watching you from afar like a coward. but now. if you get killed here? I don't know what I'll do. So, please, if not for your sake than for my heart, get out of here Chihiro. You don't deserve to be stuck in this battle."  
  
His words held so much power, that Chihiro felt her legs get up and head towards the creek, moving on their own accord, it seemed. On some level, Chihiro knew that Kohaku was working his persuasive magic on her, and on another, she just felt compelled to do as he wished, so long as he stopped looking at her like that, as though he'd die if she were harmed in any way. She let out one last sob, before spinning on her heal and dashing away, following the narrow, twisting creek, as instructed, wincing as she heard an unearthly roar come from Kohaku's direction. That 'tainted spirit' he had referred to, had no doubt arrived.  
  
The sounds of a battle followed her all the way through the woods, until she had, as Kohaku had guaranteed, reached a grand old oak tree at the base of the creek. The shimmering, icy water disappeared into the tree's roots, down into a possible cave underneath her. Chiharu hesitantly stepped forward, breathing hard yet again. Her cheeks were stained with dirty tear streaks, and grass stains practically covered the entire length of her body. No wonder Kohaku had wanted her to leave.  
  
"Um. let me in! Please!" she tried, knocking three times on the trees hard, dark bark, thinking herself a little foolish for talking to a tree.  
  
Of course, she felt immensely un-foolish as the tree's base quickly swung open, nearly taking Chihiro's nose off as it did so. She squeaked and backed up, peering down into the long hole that was now waiting for her inside of the tree. It looked so long! Chihiro was considering maybe just NOT going into the tree, and waiting patiently BY the tree, for Kohaku to come back, (And he would come back.) when she heard a loud rustling sound off to the side.  
  
She froze up, eyes wide, as she remembered what Kohaku had said about these woods no longer being the safe, natural haven they once were, and him not being able to protect her just then. She made a whimpering sound, and decided to just do as Kohaku wanted her to, for once. She leapt into the tree, throwing caution to the wind as she felt herself fall down into the deep unknowns, screaming her head off. well, SHE had been the one who had wanted to come back!  
  
"YEEEEEEEEEE-OUCH!" she cried, landing hard on her butt as she reached the end of the tunnel, feeling lucky that there was a stack of hay to break her fall, but sore none-the-less. Carefully cracking open her eyes to see where the tree had taken her, she took as much weight as she possibly could off her bruised behind. Unfortunately, she couldn't see anything. Her surroundings were completely shrouded in darkness, and she was seriously considering the intelligence of having not brought a flashlight with her. Oh well, knowing this place, it probably wouldn't have worked, in any case.  
  
Someone struck a match.  
  
Chihiro was suddenly met with the sight of three people, wearing the equivalent of modern day ski masks, holding spears at her throat, and not giving off ANY friendly vibes. Chihiro gulped and scurried backwards, feeling distressed as her back hit a brick wall.  
  
"What are you doing here-human?" one of the people said, calling her human, once again, as though it were a major insult. It was the one holding the match that seemed to miraculously illuminate the entire room. Chihiro bit her lip and considered her next words carefully.  
  
"Um. Kohaku told me to come here! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to barge into your home! Or anything." she said, trailing off as she wondered if anyone could really LIVE in a place like this. It was (Still) dark and dank, the walls all bricked up, with some earth seeping through the cracks. The floors were packed dirt, and there were boxes filled to the brim with random flotsam lined up all around the room. It looked like a bit of a storage closet, and there was an exit at the back, bright yellow light streaming through it. Chihiro curled her legs up to herself, swallowing hard.  
  
"Se- I mean, Chihiro!?" One of the masked people cried, dropping their spear.  
  
".Um, yeah, that's me." Chihiro offered cautiously, thinking the voice sounded strangely familiar. Quickly, the person ripped off their mask and threw themselves on Chihiro, engulfing her in a large bear hug that caught the girl off guard.  
  
It was Rin!  
  
"Chihiro! It's really you, I can't believe you're back!" she cried happily, body shaking with joyful laughter. Chihiro smiled too and hugged Rin back.  
  
"Oh my gosh! Rin! I'm so happy to see you! I thought- well I don't really know what I thought, but I never thought I'd see you here!" Chihiro exclaimed cheerfully, happy to see yet another familiar face.  
  
The other two 'villains' removed their masks too, revealing them to be friendly yuna* from the bathhouse. They smiled broadly and seemed to recognize Chihiro as well. Chihiro supposed she was pretty well known at the bathhouse, and felt all tingly inside at the thought of it. It was as though, in some way, they were all extended family, just waiting for her to come back into their lives. Or maybe she was just being sentimental.  
  
"What were you thinking? Never visiting like that?" Rin asked, stepping back to put her hands on her hips, mock disapprovingly.  
  
"I'm sorry! I tried, but I couldn't find my way back here!" Chihiro said, earnestly. At this Rin threw her head back, letting out ripe peels of laughter, genuinely amused.  
  
"That's so sad, I believe it! It would be very Chihiro-like of you." Rin admitted. The yuna nodded in agreement, and Chihiro blushed a little.  
  
"Umm. good?" she offered. Rin laughed again, and took Chihiro by the arm.  
  
"Come on, what are we standing here for? There's places to go, people to see! Let's get you re-introduced to everyone!" Rin said, throwing her arm around Chihiro's shoulders. Chihiro nodded and smiled expectantly, but at the same time, she was thinking a mile per minute, still trying to work things out in her head.  
  
First off, as overwhelmingly happy as she was to see Rin again, there was still the matter of Kohaku, up above her now, fighting that 'tainted sprit', an enemy she had never seen. She felt her heart tighten at the very thought of it, and her lips began to tremble ominously. She quickly stilled them, crying wasn't going to help anyone, and in her heart, she knew Kohaku would be able to take care of himself. She just would have been able to rest easier if he had let her stay with him. help him.  
  
Second of all, she was clueless as to where Rin was leading her, and something smelled funny about the whole situation.  
  
"But Rin," she finally had to ask. "Why aren't you at Aburya?" And why are you living in a tree? She wanted to ask, as well. Rin's all powerful and content grin faltered slightly, her eyes fogging over with some sort of unpleasant emotion, and, since Chihiro was just too happy seeing her old friend, she quickly wished she hadn't brought the subject up. There was obviously dark happenings going on beneath the surface of her Spirit world, and she was just beginning to scratch away at them. How much had changed? How much had stayed the same?  
  
"Why don't we talk about that later, after you've seen everything. It will all make much more sense then," Rin said, leading Chihiro into the light, and revealing to the fourteen year old just what was underneath the innocent looking tree.  
  
"Oh. wow." Chihiro got out, eyes almost popping out of her head, and all thoughts of Kohaku momentarily leaving her thoughts.  
  
Below her, above her, in front of her, were houses, platforms, streets, haphazardly created stores, and people, all squished into warm corners and walls in the cozy looking expanse of space underground. All of the floor was dirt packed, but there were some cemented roads. And the walls were plastered and solid somehow. There were many platforms (such as the one Chihiro found herself to be standing on.) jutting out from them, with buildings on THOSE surfaces too. It made for a very complex and multi- leveled city. The whole place looked notably crowded, and quickly thrown together, purely for. survival.  
  
"Rin?" Chihiro asked, as lost as ever. Rin didn't say anything though, just smiled pleasantly, and led Chihiro off the platform, down some stairs, with the yuna trailing behind them. Chihiro took cautious steps, still looking all around her with wonder in her eyes. It was like. some sort of Alice in Wonderland world, or a bustling ancient city.  
  
Chihiro padded along the dirt streets with Rin, holding onto the woman's arm like a scared child, afraid if she didn't, the roaring crowds would swallow her up and she'd be lost forever in this shanty-town maze. Rin's placating smile was still in effect though, and Chihiro felt safer because of it.  
  
As they walked quickly through a market, the fascinated Chihiro took time to glance into every cart, spotting many random spirit merchandise that baffled her, and her little mortal mind. While some of the goods looked admittedly magical and foreign, some of the merchandise just plain useless. Hundreds of pots of water? (Well, that wasn't USELESS, though it did seem a bit excessive.) Dirt? And rubber gloves? Why would spirits need a surplus of these things? And why was everyone eagerly stocking up?  
  
"Look everyone, it's SEN!" someone cried from the crowd. Immediately, there was a mass turning of heads, as everyone in the market place, it seemed, came to stare directly at the scared Chihiro, Rin, next to her, sighing with agitation. Oh well, she should have seen this coming.  
  
"WOW! I never thought she'd come back!"  
  
"It's been so long!"  
  
"Remember how brave she was with that filthy monster?"  
  
"Sen, you were so courageous!"  
  
"Where have you been? In the mortal world?"  
  
"How is it? Do you smell like a human?"  
  
"Ha! Sen could never smell like a human, she's the bravest and most caring thing I've ever met!"  
  
Chihiro felt a heated blush rise to her cheeks, and she stared carefully at her feet. She hadn't realized she was THIS popular. These people really admired her, had really missed her! She wished she had come back sooner. though a little part of her was still reminding her that while she might be pleased over the fact that she was a celebrity now, something evil was happening at the same time. Something she had to fix. This was all just the icing on the cake, and she had this gut feeling that she hadn't just been re-invited to the spirit domain to converse with old buddies . of course, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it!  
  
"Don't let this go to your head," Rin advised her, softly. Chihiro let out a guilty laugh, as Rin began to tug her along. They had places to go.  
  
"Thanks everyone, I've missed you so much! I'll see you all later!" Chihiro called as she was led away. Faces she saw in the crowd were mainly more yuna, and some male bath house workers, and even that frog she had met before! It was so great to see everyone! She gave them her best smile, and then quickly trotted off with Rin, feeling slightly relieved as they broke through the crowd and could more easily obtain oxygen again.  
  
"Aren't you the social butterfly," Rin teased, bringing Chihiro through an alley, past a curtain that hung across it, down some cold, stone steps, past a heavily locked door, and, finally, into a perfectly normal room with dim lighting, a sparse amount of furniture, and a poofy looking rug, that was as soft as puppy fur. Chihiro collapsed into a chair, throwing her head back, and exhaling.  
  
"Whoo! You should warn me next time we do something like that. I don't think I've ever seen anything so amazing Rin! This whole underground town is- Oh my GOD!" she cried, head snapping back up.  
  
"What?" Rin asked, worried.  
  
"Kohaku! He's still out there! He told me to come here to stay safe. but he's still up there fighting a . a. tainted spirit!" Chihiro explained, her face ashen, as she kneeled in front of Rin, tears threatening to form in her wide eyes once again. Rin smiled kindly and tucked a lock of hair behind Chihiro's ear.  
  
"He'll be fine. That dragon boy can take care of himself, he probably just didn't want to have to watch out for you when he was fighting. If it's just one tainted spirit. he'll be joining us soon enough." Rin said, confidently, throwing her ski mask onto a chair with her long dark robe, leaving her in a smaller and simpler pale yellow robe, and sandals. She turned around and skipped over to the fireplace, which Chihiro hadn't noticed was crackling away in the corner. Rin put a pot over it, acting very calm and controlled, while Chihiro was having a nervous breakdown of sorts. She needed to know what the Hell was going on!!  
  
"Tea?" Rin offered.  
  
"RIN!" Chihiro cried.  
  
"All right, all right. I'll tell you everything; even though I'm sure Kohaku would have wanted to be here, that silly boy. I'll tell you anyway, since you're so insistent, and I'm sure you're also terrified." Well, Chihiro couldn't argue with her there.  
  
After kettle was firmly placed over the fire, Rin turned around to grab a rolled up piece of parchment off a shelf. Chihiro sat back down, and began fidgeting with the hem of her large, sunny face shirt. Which was still all she was wearing. Quickly, Rin snapped the parchment out, and laid in across the table in front of Chihiro. The girl stared down at it with some degree of interest. It looked like a map of the Spirit World! She remembered the towns labeled on it from her train stops, when she had gone to visit Granny.  
  
"It's a map," Chihiro acknowledged.  
  
"Yes," Rin agreed. "And everything coated in red has already been tainted. The blue area belongs to the spirits." There was a long, hefty pause, as Chihiro tried to fully comprehend what Rin was telling her.  
  
". There's a lot of red area."  
  
"It's about equal between the red and blue."  
  
"Rin! Can we please elaborate here? What's with this 'tainted' business, and don't the spirits own ALL of the SPIRIT land?" Chihiro asked, cheeks flushed with emotion.  
  
"Correction, they USED to own it all," Rin informed her grimly.  
  
"What happened? When did this . tainted . ness . start taking over? Is there some sort of war going on within the spirit world?" the girl asked softly. Oh no, her friends . had they been going through all this, alone, all this time? Rin's eyes narrowed thoughtfully, as she too, stared at the large map, of which she kept constantly updated, even though she could never actually partake in the battles that went on outside Aburya's property .  
  
"You could say that," she admitted. "It all started about three and half years ago, now. only a little bit after you left us."  
  
"Things were going great. Yu-Baba was acting like a normal person, instead of a money driven tyrant, I was really saving up for my own train ticket to get out of the bathhouse, Kamajii hadn't complained in a long while, which always meant things were going incredibly well, Kohaku was preparing to leave us as and start his own life, with you, I'd assume, everyone was feeling liberated and happy, and all thanks to you, at that. Do you know you're a bit of a celebrity around here?" the woman got out, almost all in one breath.  
  
"Hadn't noticed," Chihiro sighed sarcastically, her heart still beating rapidly from that last note about Kohaku. Had he really planned to come stay with her? Live with her? Forever? For the love of God, what had stopped him?!  
  
"Well, anyway, like I said, things were good. Our business was even doing well again. So well, in fact. that soon we attracted the attention of a particularly vile and wicked demon. Even now we're not exactly sure what classification of demon she is, since she keeps her face and true form wrapped in spells of illusion. but the people called her, from the very start . Lady Tiko." Chihiro's eyes widened  
  
"Kohaku mentioned her! He said she was evil! And that she might come looking for me, or something!" she squeaked. Rin nodded gravely.  
  
"That she might. She has a . thing . about mortals, you know. However, she has an even bigger thing about spirits. She hates them."  
  
"She does?"  
  
"Yes, and now she owns the bathhouse." Rin added.  
  
"But why would she take over the bath house if!?-"  
  
"I'll get there. Let's just start from the beginning. That taking place, one day, when she just waltzed in with all of her silks and fur, a literal tornado of jewels, and over threw Yu-Baba. Just like that, a wave of her hand, and poof, the old woman was gone." Rin said, emotionlessly, sounding much as though she had told this story one too many times before.  
  
"Is she dead!?" Chihiro cried fearfully, thinking not only of old Yu- Baba, but of the poor, now motherless baby.  
  
"No. She's not. Tiko has her somewhere, I'm almost positive, along with Granny," Rin assured the tearful looking Chihiro. Chihiro didn't whether to be relieved, or even more distressed by this news, so she settled for being morbidly fascinated. Rin continued, playing with her long, silky dark hair as she talked.  
  
"She was a slave driver. Even worse than Yu-Baba! If you can imagine that," Rin laughed, though there was anything but humor in her tone. "And on top of it all, she was adding her own concoctions to the bath water mixes. We figured it was a little personal quirk, and even though we were highly suspicious of her after she had overthrown Yu-Baba as she did, we didn't really have the gall to question her. none of us. Except possibly Kohaku. He really did question her, and is still paying dearly for it."  
  
"In truth, I guess, Kohaku was smarter than the rest of us, to spot it so early on. He suspected that Lady Tiko was doing some sketchy workings with our bath water that was eventually affecting our customers, in negative ways. Can you imagine? We couldn't. But Kohaku had his proof, and he went to confront the still new, and quiet Lady Tiko about his suspicions. Seeing how sharp, and powerful he was, and just how much evidence he had that she had been tampering with things that she had no right to, apparently, Lady Tiko flipped. Attacked him. Revealed a bit of her real, fearsome power. Kohaku was barely able to fend her off, and even when he did manage to escape, he was banished, and after that, hunted down by some of lady Tiko's men. She has her own entourage, did I tell you? Creepy, ghost like men, wearing black robs and carrying long glaives. they hunted Kohaku down like dogs for the longest time. though mostly now Tiko just sends tainted spirits out . which is a good thing too, because Tiko's ghost men are SCARY, let me tell you. Tainted spirits look like kittens compared to them."  
  
"As it would turn out, Kohaku was right. Lady Tiko WAS tampering with the bath water, and not to make it smell better, either. She was infecting it, polluting it. And after a time, anyone who used it, soaked in it, turned into a terrible, disgusting and brainless monster. We now call them tainted spirits." Rin said, her voice dark and low. Chihiro gasped, biting her nails. This sounded like a camp horror story, not real life!  
  
"But your customers!"  
  
"I know. and soon, when we found out the horrid truth, other Aburya workers began to question Tiko's authority, her judgment, like Kohaku had. We saw what her water was doing to spirits, how they went insane, how they died! They look like demons Chihiro. repulsive demons. However, when a lot of us banned together to start a resistance, trying valiantly to overthrow her, and get Yu-Baba back. she retaliated. Many were killed, though just as many escaped. This was when the real war started. Most of the workers at the Aburya quit, and joined up in the forests, living there and watching the bathhouse, as our forest, and Spirit world in general soon came to be effected by tainted spirits, starting more than a bathhouse rebellion, but a much larger problem."  
  
"Why don't people just TELL those spirits to stop coming to the bathhouse!?" Chihiro asked, her fists clenched, her eyes burning with fury. NOW she knew why Kohaku hated Lady Toki. This was disgusting.  
  
"We can't. We're trapped." Rin said simply.  
  
"In here!?" Chihiro gasped, eyes wide.  
  
"Yep."  
  
"But Kohaku came to see me in the human world!"  
  
"Well sure, we could travel to the human word. but what good would that do?"  
  
"I-I don't know. but it could do something!"  
  
"No," Rin said, sadly, shaking her head, her pretty face slightly depressing to watch as it became darker, more upset. "It wouldn't do anything. And Lady Tiko purposely has us trapped this way. So that we can watch as everything dies a slow, agonizing death. Pretty soon there were battles going on all over the spirit world, fighting off armies of Lady Toki's tainted spirits, who infected other, pure spirits, just by touching them, and starting epidemics. Which, of course, urged spirits to come back to the bathhouse, and 'clean themselves'."  
  
"Oh no."  
  
"It was a vicious circle, and we could do nothing but watch in horror as the situation got worse and worse, the slightly odd, cold bathhouse owner we had once known, becoming a leader of her very own, dark army. She was, and still is, too powerful for us to confront head on, so in an effort to do our part for the war, we have been doing small things. Like building up our own armies of people who were left from the bathhouse, in underground cities, such as this one. We do little things, subtle things, to sabotage Tiko's bathhouse. Like mucking up the water supplies, getting people make a scene so that the customers will become angry and leave, even sinking the spirit ferry before it can make it across the river."  
  
"But. that's just what Kohaku did to MY boat!" Chihiro said, realization crashing down around her with such a force she found herself breathing hard, even though she was sitting down. Everything was starting to make sense now, in a terribly, disturbing way.  
  
"I figured he'd be trying that again tonight, it's been a while since he attempted a ferry sinking. Tiko usually catches on to our ploys, and if we try them to much, she'll send her ghost men, who are ten times worse than tainted spirits, over to stop us. We loose men that way." she admitted.  
  
"Kohaku and I must have been lucky then, to only have one tainted spirit chasing after us, then," Chihiro determined, folding he arms. How could something like this have happened!? "You know, it looks like Tiko has taken over a whole lot of land," she added, referring to the map.  
  
"She definitely has. And no one even knows it's HER doing all of this, since no one knows the tainted spirits were her perverted idea. Don't underestimate tainted spirits, they can be powerful when in large numbers."  
  
"This is too frustrating! Why hasn't someone suspected the bathhouse yet? Someone should have noticed." Chihiro groaned, rubbing her head. Rin shrugged.  
  
"Well, once your infected, it takes a while for the 'poison', to run its course, so it could be weeks after you left the bathhouse before you transform. And even then, already tainted spirits can spread the sickness just as fast as the bathhouse, so people usually assume they've just encountered something by a tainted spirit, and caught the disease that way."  
  
"But that's so FRUSTRATING!" Chihiro whined, fighting off the urge to pull her hair out.  
  
"YOU'RE telling ME it's frustrating? Try living with it for three years, knowing that every day, there are spirits out there, possibly friends and family, being killed by that bitch's hoards. Everyone out there's confused as to why this is happening to them, who's controlling this mysterious enemy, and helpless to stop it. Our world is polluted Chihiro. And it's only getting worse. Everyday I pray for a way to stop this," Rin admitted softly. It was then and there that Chihiro made a very important decision.  
  
"I'm going to help." she said resolutely, eyes hardening, as she looked up to stare at Rin. Rin looked a little startled, and was about to say something, when the teakettle began to whistle, demanding attention.  
  
"Kohaku wont like this. He's very protective of you, you know. Even now, after all these years. he's never once forgotten you, and isn't likely to let you risk your life for a battle you have no part in," Rin said, wisely, as she stood, and approached the fire.  
  
"I know he's not going to like it," Chihiro agreed heartily. "But I DO have a part in this battle. I have a lot of friends here, and I'm not going to let them all be killed by some mentally deranged woman, who's messing with this world. I wont stand for it," she said, stomping her foot on the ground for emphasis. Smiling, Rin shook her head as she poured two cups of tea.  
  
"You have such a big heart, you know it?" Rin mentioned softly. "And I DO believe you'll anything you possibly can, to help. And I know you'll make a difference," Chihiro blushed, staring at her feet, her steam sort of lost now.  
  
"Don't talk about me like I'm so great," she requested.  
  
"But you ARE great! Do you know what it means to us, all of us, to have you back here? You're like the prodigy girl who got her own freedom, not to mention OURS, just by being who she was." Rin handed Chihiro the cup of tea, and the girl thanked her softly, still embarrassed out of her mind. "Everyone still talks about you, tell their kids stories of your adventures. Even if things all went to hell after you left, that wasn't YOUR fault, and the people of Aburya can never forget how heroic you were," Rin said, enjoying Chihiro's discomfiture, apparently.  
  
"Oh jeez." It was just as Rin had begun to chuckle lightly, rolling the map back up, when there was a harsh knock at the door.  
  
"Who could that be?" Rin wondered, putting the map away. Chihiro tensed, obviously excepting there to be a roaring, violent tainted spirit at the door, after all she had just heard. Rin saw her stiff posture and shook her head. "Don't worry, we're as safe in this town as you would be in the human world,"  
  
".Okay," Chihiro said, still cautious. One could never be to prepared, was how she'd found it.  
  
"Rin!!" a high-pitched, excited voice sounded from the doorway.  
  
"Kita?" Rin asked, letting a little yuna enter the room. Chihiro immediately sighed and relaxed her guard. Maybe she was just a wee bit high strung just then. But not without good reason! From what Rin had just told her, it sounded like the spirit world was in total chaos.  
  
"Rin, I have a message for you, it's from Mr. Kohaku!" Kita the yuna squeaked. She was a small, fish like looking thing, with a cute pink kimono and wide, innocent eyes. Chihiro leapt to her feet at Kita's announcement.  
  
"Kohaku?" she gasped. "Where is he? What did he say? Is he all right? Why isn't he here!" she yelled, flustered.  
  
"Chihiro calm down, I'm sure everything is all right, and you're scaring Kita!" Rin said, shaking her head, and watching the little yuna stare with apparent morbid fascination at Chihiro. Poor thing had probably never seen a human before. She was very young.  
  
"Is that.?" Kita asked, breathlessly.  
  
"Yes. Kita, I would like you to meet Chihiro, THE Chihiro." Rin added, tauntingly.  
  
"Oh, my!" Kita gasped, rushing towards Chihiro, and taking the girl's hand in her own, smaller one. She looked very thrilled to be meeting the girl her parents had told her so much about, and who was totally responsible for the liberation of the Aburya workers all those years ago. "It's such an honor to meet you!"  
  
"You too," Chihiro said, out of lack of better things to say. What was she supposed to do? It was great that Kita was happy to meet her, but, on the other hand, she really wanted to know what Kohaku's message was. On this one, Rin helped her out.  
  
"Kita, I think we'll have time for formalities later. Why don't you just tell us this important message from Mr. Kohaku for now?" she suggested sweetly. Kita nodded, standing back, and making herself looking very important.  
  
"Mr. Kohaku says, and I quote:" she started out in her little voice, sounding amusingly important, "'Tell Chihiro and Rin I wont be able to come back home until a later date. Something has come up of a grave nature. Rin, please continue with all plans that have been discussed earlier, and keep an eye on Chihiro for me until I get back. Chihiro. I am truly sorry.' Un- quote!" she chirped happily. Rin looked vaguely worried, and was stroking her chin . while Chihiro looked totally crushed, eyes wide as she collapsed back down onto her chair. She clenched her fists, feeling as though she had just been doused with a cold bucket of water, as she furiously gnawed on her lip.  
  
"He lied again," she said softly. "He told me he would come back and he didn't . he's such . he's such a." she was gasping now, a small sob threatening to burst from her throat. She knew she was being childish, unreasonable, and was perfectly aware that something important that needed Kohaku's attention probably really DID come up, and that he truly needed to be wherever he was. but . for some reason, this knowledge was doing little to comfort Chihiro. "He's such a jerk!" she cried, startling Rin and Kita both, as she bolted from her seat and dashed out of door, before Rin could make a move to stop her.  
  
"Chihiro!" Rin cried, chasing after the girl, and cursing the child's speed. She had forgotten how damned fast she was. "Chihiro come back!!"  
  
But Rin's words didn't even make it to the fourteen year old's ears, as she dashed down allies, streets, turned corners, pushed through crowds, tears streaming down her face, and making her feel like that little girl all over again. blindly stumbling through the spirit world, lost and alone, confused and shocked.  
  
She hated him.  
  
*  
  
"Hello? Hello there? Child? Say something," an old, withered voice croaked from above her.  
  
"Hm?." Chihiro mumbled, reluctantly lifting her head, to see who was incessantly shaking her shoulder, and forcing her awake.  
  
"Why, good lord! You're a human!" the old, withered spirit gasped, looking immensely fascinated.  
  
Chihiro didn't even bother to respond to that statement, as the answer was quite plainly obvious, as she cracked her eyes open, and fully inspected her surroundings. Where was she?. she remembered running for a while, getting lost in crowds, and just lost in general, all the while thinking about Kohaku, and how angry she was with him. She experimentally flexed her toes, wincing as she found the bottoms of her feet to be thoroughly sore and calloused, even though she had been wearing sneakers the entire time. She just wasn't cut out for all this running . heck, it was starting to look as though she wasn't cut out for the spirit world in general.  
  
"I'm so weak," she sighed, quietly.  
  
"Oh, why would you say something like that, young one? It looks as though you're just in a spot of trouble. Nothing to make a mess of yourself over. Why don't you come in, and we can talk about it?" the old spirit offered, grasping Chihiro's hand, in an attempt to help her up off the cold, dirt packed ground. The girl rubbed a stray tear from her eye, and did as he asked. Ordinarily, she didn't feel comfortable being taken in by strangers, however the usual rules for Earth didn't seem to apply to the spirit world, and she felt totally confident that this old spirit wouldn't hurt her. She let herself be led out of the cold darkness of the late night, almost morning, (Had she really only been in the spirit world for one night so far.? It felt as though she had done so much, although she had forgotten that spirits were creatures of the night, by nature, and did most everything during this time of day.) and into a cozy looking little shop, where this old man seemed to sell a variety of useless trinkets, and other things she had seen merchants sell on the streets before, that still made no sense to her. Like shelves full of clear water, and rubber gloves.  
  
"Now, why don't you sit down here, and I'll get you a nice cup of water, hm?" the old man, who was wearing a straggly old brown coat, offered, turning around and hobbling off to get a cup. Chihiro nodded numbly, and stared down at her hands, simply letting herself be babied.  
  
Things had really taken a turn for the worst. She. she hadn't been expecting everything to be so chaotic in the spirit world, so different. She had just assumed all of her friends would simply stay the same, and never change if she wasn't there to help things along, like a never-ending dream that revolved around her convenience. Of course, that was just a self- indulgent way of looking at things. These people, her friends, had real lives, and just because she wasn't there to experience these things with them, didn't mean they wouldn't go on experiencing them, with or without her.  
  
'I've been so naïve..' she admitted, her eyes slowly watering over again. The old man hobbled back over, a cup of cold water in his hand.  
  
"Oh, my, dear, you're crying again, what's wrong?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowing together, as he looked generally worried for the girl. Chihiro took the water, sipping it shakily as her lips trembled, and her face scrunched up into an upset expression.  
  
"N-n-nothing," she choked out, trying to swallow the water, which was, admittedly, doing wonders for her abused throat.  
  
But she was lying again. Everything was wrong. It distressed her that her friends, her good hearted, strong friends should be forced into such a horrible position with this war, and that they should all have to go through the terrible things they went through everyday, fighting for survival, and not to be caught by that woman . Lady Tiko. She was the embodiment of evil, it seemed, through the girl's eyes, and a variable she had not seen coming into the equation, ever. Who would be so totally evil? It didn't seem as though this woman had a shred of goodness in her, she was just a sick excuse for a person. And that scared Chihiro.  
  
And what about Kohaku? She was most definitely not having the happy reunion with her best friend she had hoped to, and now he, the River God, had broken his promise to her, again. Could Gods even break promises? Was it physically possible? Apparently so, and Chihiro felt a cold claw grip her heart now, whenever she thought of him. Why would he abandon her like this, when things were so messed up? When she needed him? She always felt so much safer when he was around.  
  
'No, don't think about him! He can't help you anymore! You have to depend on yourself!' she thought, fiercely. And then, something else crossed her mind, something wholly disturbing, that she hadn't even considered when she had firmly told Rin she would do anything to help the spirit community win their war, but a few hours ago. 'I want to go home.'  
  
This one thought started a literal avalanche of emotions, and soon Chihiro was sobbing again, the old spirit man looking distinctly uncomfortable, as he made little worried sounds, and patted Chihiro's back, awkwardly.  
  
"Young one, girl. please stop crying, and tell old Tenchi what he can do to help . I can't help you stop crying if you wont tell me what's wrong," the man, apparently Tenchi, explained, piercing through Chihiro's haze of depression, and shedding some light on her. She was being childish. She had to stop.  
  
'Last time I was this upset . was when I was her, in this world, and I lost my name to Yu-Baba, in order to save my parents . but last time . Kohaku helped me. He comforted me. And now I'm alone.' She thought, her sniffling pathetically. 'Of course, whose fault is that? YOU ran away from Rin.'  
  
"Now, are you going to tell me what's wrong? Or are you going to sit here brooding all night?" Tenchi asked, taking Chihiro's hand. Chihiro studied Tenchi's old, curious and withered face for a moment, taking in his odd, slightly bohemian store, filled with the sweet sent of age old lilacs, and sandalwood. It felt good, reassuring, and it suddenly spurred Chihiro to take solace in this man, who was offering an ear, to listen to her pitiable little problems.  
  
"I-I." she started, searching for the words that would most appropriately express the large hole that had been filled, and then quickly wrenched back open, leaving her gasping for air, in the past few hours. "It's the war." She settled for.  
  
"Aye. yes, the war is a . terrible thing. What has you down then, a family member of yours been attacked? Transformed?" Tenchi guessed, his eyes so sympathetic Chihiro felt her heart rate begin to gradually return to normal. She took another small sip from her cup of water, that suddenly she realized had an odd, soothing sweet and energizing taste to it, sighing as it went down easier this time.  
  
"No," she admitted. "It's just that, it's all happening so fast. I feel like everything's been turned upside down, and I'm scared. I want everything to be back to how it used to be . because I'm afraid my friends are going to get hurt," she had been feeling that way since the beginning, but now that she said it, it really struck home. What if one of her friends was killed, or transformed, and she couldn't help them? What would she do?  
  
"I see . a bit of some emotional trauma there, then?" Tenchi asked, pulling up a chair to sit opposite of Chihiro now. "War always has a devastating effect on people. Some just can't take it. The violence, the raging emotions, the danger. But . we can't really help the way things are," he said, letting out a long, weary sigh, that spoke of the many terrible things he had seen personally, in his lifetime. "If we could stop this war, just end it and let things go back to the happy way they were, don't you think we'd do it? All of us? No one likes battles like these, especially the position we are in, personally, with these fights. Quite upsetting, quite." he mumbled darkly. Chihiro looked down, he was right. This must be very hard on everyone living in this cursed land now, unable to help loved ones outside Aburya's property. She was just a little human suffering from the shock of it all, but they had had to live with this for so much longer.  
  
"What do you do? How do you go on, knowing everyone is in such peril?" she asked in a small voice. Tenchi seemed to consider this one for a minute, folding his knobby hands together contemplatively.  
  
"Many people are torn apart by war, shell shocked, and can never recover from its stressful and wholly terrifying atmosphere. However, others are made stronger by it. They see how cruel and merciless it is, and can take from that experience, that they never want anyone else to have to endure what they went through, ever again. That they want to protect people from that terrible fate, and become strong hearted and fierce defenders. Better people. Courageous people. Of course, it's not easy becoming a braver person. You have to have your priorities straight, have a relatively strong heart to begin with , and something to love that will keep you going to matter what hand fate deals you," Tenchi said, looking deep into Chihiro's eyes. "Even if it means putting yourself at risk, to preserve other people, or even just future generations, some must go that distance to protect what they love. Do you see what I'm saying? How people can go on, as long as there's someone out there to protect?" Chihiro stared at old Tenchi with no small degree of awe. Everything he had said had really struck home. Really meant something to her . was she Kohaku's reason for going out and putting his life at risk?  
  
'Could I have been blinded for my . love for Kohaku as well? I wasn't simply upset that he had abandoned me . I still have friends. I just was afraid HE would get hurt. But now I see . that sometimes you have to make sacrifices on your part to protect loved ones. I see why Kohaku had to do what he needed to do,' Her warm, large eyes suddenly hardened. 'But that doesn't mean I'm going to let him go through all this alone!'  
  
Abruptly, she stood, slamming her cup of water down on the table beside her. Tenchi looked a bit startled, staring up at her now.  
  
"Girl?" he asked, worried she might be angry with his response.  
  
"You know something? You're absolutely right Tenchi. Not just war, but bad situations in general CAN make you into a stronger person, and I'm going to make sure I come out of all of this a better person!" she enthused, her old, exuberant self back. Tenchi smiled broadly as he saw an familiar light spark up in her eyes, one that he knew had always really been there. "And I'm also going to make sure the people I love aren't hurt! I meant what I said to Rin before, I'll do anything I can to help! And I'm not going to let Kohaku go either, I'll fight with him . I'll aid him with whatever he's doing! Because that's what friends do." she finished dramatically, paying no mind to the fact that Tenchi probably had no idea what she was talking about. Quickly turning back to Tenchi, who was still seated, and watching her with a slightly rye grin on his face, Chihiro smiled broadly for the old man, who she now felt oddly connected with, even though he still didn't even know her name. It didn't seem as though he needed to know it, though. He already knew her.  
  
"Thank you, Tenchi!" she said, heading towards the door. "You've been such a help, I'm so glad I ran into you! I have to go back to Rin now, though, hopefully I'll see you around!" she said, gasping and dashing away, hoping that she would luckily stumble upon Rin's house again, even though she had absolutely no idea how to get back to the woman's place from . wherever it was she had come upon that night. A sanctuary, maybe, was what she could call Tenchi's little, run down shop.  
  
"Oh, I think you might," Tenchi said, his deep green eyes, that moved like the ocean, twinkling with love. He closed them slowly, and when Chihiro turned the corner, loosing sight of the odd shop, it evaporated into the air, turning into nothingness, the only evidence of its existence a small dragon shaped design in the dirt, where it's door would have been.  
  
*  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Is this plot too weird, too annoying? I don't know how this is all going to turn out, officially, but I have a vague idea, and it's a wee bit weird. Okay, hungry now, have to go, bye! (Review! Review like your LIFE depends on it!)  
  
Rio Grande. 


	3. Spy Games

Hey all! I must say, the people who give me reviews for my Spirited Away fic give some of the best reviews ever! I love them to death! Please keep them coming, if not only because they make me feel so guilty I just HAVE to write.  
  
Now. Some things I must attend to. Apparently, I've been spelling Aburaya wrong. Not a big surprise, though (As much as I am thankful to the person who pointed it out.) I am a little tired of fixing all my Japanese names. Of course, I'll keep on fixing them, but let's just try to overlook it people, if I mess up some during the duration of the story.  
  
Also, people want more fluff with Kohaku and Chihiro! I can totally relate to that. AND. It'll happen, but this fiction is not going to be necessarily centered around it- there are too many other things going on! (And by the by- hardly anyone mentioned anything in the reviews about how the entire Spirit World has been chaotically hurled into a confusing mêlée of gigantic proportions! It was all about the Chihiro and Kohakuness! Sheesh!) (Shut up. I know I'd be focused on the same thing. we're just going to pretend I wouldn't be!)  
  
And then there's my grammar. Oh God, it's atrocious, and I know it. I did a lot of 'it's' 'its', and then I just forgot to add needed words. I'm sorry; I should have looked over my work more carefully.  
  
Last note, about Tenchi. I must be a really bad writer, because I didn't mean for people to get so many mixed messages about him! However, I'm not going to say anything, you can all think what you like, but the guy's not going to pop up much more, except maybe subliminally. He's just not overly important to the story after his little pep talk with Chihiro.  
  
Sorry for keeping everyone waiting for so long, but as you're all going to find out, I'm lazy! Really, really lazy! And this won't be the first time Spirited Back will take a bit to come out.  
  
Now that I'm done acting like a total bitch- On with the story! I love you all, and I don't own Spirited Away!  
  
*  
  
Spirited Back  
  
By Rio Grande  
  
Chapter Three: Spy Games.  
  
*  
  
"Chihiro, where did you go!?" Rin cried, upon sighting Chihiro come trotting around the bend. The older woman wasted no time throwing herself on the girl, and hugging her close. "We were so worried!"  
  
"I-I'm sorry Rin!" Chihiro mumbled, her voice stifled by Rin's arms, and her vice like hold around Chihiro's neck.  
  
"No I'm sorry. I'm sorry I brought you into all this. It's just too much for you to swallow, so suddenly! I should have never let you even think you would be helping us fight this war. You have no place in it!" Rin explained, looking slightly distressed, and quite guilty.  
  
"No Rin! You weren't wrong! I've made up my mind!- Again. I want to help you fight this battle against Tiko. For real!"  
  
Chihiro had been blindly running around the streets of the underground, rebel city for some time now, hopelessly lost and unsure if she would be able to make it back to Rin's place before daybreak, when she knew the Spirit World tended to settle down and hibernate for the day. She had just been about to break down and ask a random Yuna for direction's to her friends place, when Rin had spotted Chihiro coming down the street. Apparently Rin had been out all night looking for the fourteen year old, and had made some personal decisions herself about what Chihiro should do from here, in terms of the Spirit War. Unfortunatly for Rin, Chihiro too, thanks to a certain old shopkeeper, had made some very important choices about the war as well.  
  
"What are you talking about, Chihiro?" Rin asked, furrowing her brow, and staring into the girls wide brown eyes. She had gotten the distinct impression that, when the girl had burst into tears and dashed out of her house, that she had been having some misgivings about really getting involved in all this mess, no matter what she had said before. But now. now she had that look in her eye. The look that told Rin she was dead serious. That she had her mind set, and refused to be persuaded.  
  
"I. I've made up my mind to help you and all of the Bathhouse workers! I'm going to help you because I don't want the Spirit World to be torn apart by some twisted old Woman, and I will not let this battle hurt me. I'll just get stronger! Like when I came here last time! You'll see!" Chihiro assured the woman, amazing herself with how childishly firm she sounded. She hadn't talked about ANYTHING this passionately, or even thought about anything this passionately, in such a sure way, since she had been much younger. It seemed as though she had lost her will to love things strongly or as definitely as she once had been taught to in Aburaya, and had suddenly regained the ability to do so. It felt good.  
  
"Well. I can't really argue with that . but. but It's a big commitment Chihiro. Think about what you're doing! We're not playing games here." Rin reminded the girl softly, not so sure she wanted her little friend to get involved with such things like fighting with Lady Tiko, personally.  
  
"I know it's going to be hard, and dangerous. But I'm willing to go through all that if I can help you guys. I want to help everyone I care for!" Chihiro explained, as if this should cover it all, and end the discussion.  
  
"A very noble choice, but maybe you'll feel differently after going to one meeting." Rin said, sagely, folding her arms.  
  
"Meeting?"  
  
"Yes. we're having one final one this late afternoon, to confirm our plans before tomorrow tonight," Rin elucidated, as if this should all mean something to Chihiro., which it didn't.  
  
"What plans? In his note. Kohaku mentioned something about plans, as well." Chihiro said, impressed that she could now utter her friend's name without getting all choked up. It was an improvement!  
  
"Yes well, he did have a big hand in organizing the whole operation our little group of rebels has been planning, though he never WAS going to be an active participant in it. he'd stand out too much. He's too well known at the Aburaya now," Rin admitted, sighing, and starting to walk back down the street, in the direction of her home, Chihiro trotting along side her. All around them, as the sun began to peak above the trees, people were scuffling into their homes, and locking their doors. Closing down for the day, and ready to act on their nocturnal ways. The sun was up! It was time for bed! Chihiro scarcely noticed anyone around her as Rin continued to talk.  
  
"Stand out?"  
  
"Well, I told you how Tiko had a sort of special vendetta on Kohaku over the rest of us, didn't I?" Rin asked, raising her eyebrows.  
  
"Well, yes," Chihiro agreed. "It was because he figured out she was up to no good first, right?"  
  
"More than that, Kohaku is currently the strongest rebel left in the entire Aburaya property. He's a river God for God's sake! And he hates Tiko, so Tiko, in turn, keeps a special eye out for him. He's her only real threat. This hurts Kohaku because it prevents him from going on special operations with us, mainly spying, since he would be too easily noticed by Tiko's people, who have specific orders to keep both eyes peeled for things like him," Rin said, spotting her house from a block away now.  
  
"That's terrible for Kohaku," Chihiro sighed, biting her lip. Is this what Kohaku had had to live with?  
  
"Yeah, but he deals with it well. Even gives Tiko a run for her money, most of the time. She likes letting the rest of us rebels live on her specially enclosed property, to watch us squirm and feed her demons with our depression energy, but she doesn't like having Kohaku around, at all. He's a wild variable in her neat little equation she worked out, and he likes stirring up things for her. He's practically our best defense, to boot!" Rin said, digging in her pocket for keys.  
  
"Then he really couldn't have come to stay with me, while I was in the mortal realm. you all need him much more than I do," Chihiro acknowledged firmly, little by little completely forgiving Kohaku for all past misgivings, where she hadn't even realized she had not yet completely exonerated him. Even after all that had happened, she had still been clinging onto one selfish diminutive thought, that he really had abandoned her in the human world for four years when she was so very lonely. but now the thoughts had dissolved into thin air, and instead of uncertainty, Chihiro now felt a strong bond of camaraderie between her and Kohaku, even if HE didn't actually know they shared that aspect of their lives yet. That she was going to help him fight his, all of the Spirit World's, war.  
  
"Yeah, I guess so," Rin shrugged, not really understanding much about Chihiro and Kohaku's relationship, when it came to such things. She shoved open her large door, and once again Chihiro found herself surrounded by the comforting, cozy atmosphere of Rin's house. It was almost a relief from the tiring, soul-searching experience she had just had out in the streets. "So, about these meetings we have. they are held every so often, as a gathering for all of the active rebels in the city, where we discuss new happenings with the Aburaya and Tiko, try out new ways to escape and, certainly, as of late, new ways to sabotage Tiko's plans, and save old friends," Rin explained, plopping down on to a chair, Chihiro deciding to perch herself carefully on a table opposite the woman.  
  
"You mean like Granny and Yu-Baba?" Chihiro asked, excited at the prospect of rescuing the two old women.  
  
"Not to mention the Baby and the No-Face." Rin added, grimly.  
  
"No!" Chihiro said, heaving a gasp, eyes wide. Horrible pictures of the sweet, if not a bit confused, baby, chained up with No-Face in some dungeon in the depths of the Aburaya, flitted through her mind, and she felt a strong sense of injustice and anger. Babies and No-Faces had no place being locked up without their mothers! How dare Tiko!  
  
"Yes, Baby was imprisoned, we think, just after Yu-Baba was overthrown. couldn't take the thought that his mother was being held somewhere indefinitely by the evil Tiko. He too saw easily through her fake, innocent façade. Though I supposed that's easier to do when it's your mother locked up. We were just all shocked. but the Baby was outraged, and quickly imprisoned somewhere as well." Rin said, her eyes getting a far off look in them, as though she were remembering old, confusing days she would have just as well forgotten.  
  
"And No-Face?" Chihiro asked softly, almost fearfully, as though afraid to find out what had happened to her dear old friend who had been through so much with her.  
  
"Well, when Tiko realized that Yu-Baba's sister, Zeniba, would be a possibly great threat to her grand plan, she swooped over to the poor woman's cottage and locked her up with Yu-Baba before Zeniba had time to blink. Tiko is that powerful. And then, unfortunately, No-Face was apparently taken with Zeniba. They say that he was trying to defend Zeniba, and Tiko just. overpowered him," Rin sighed, hugging herself. Chihiro looked quite depressed as well, biting her lip as she imagined her dear, brave No-Face trying to fight off Tiko. and then. Granny. It was too terrible to imagine, and all of it, just everything, from the overthrowing of Yu-Baba to the killing of all those people who were now mindless tainted spirits . Chihiro wanted to make Tiko pay for her crimes in a way she had never wanted anyone to pay before.  
  
"Chihiro? Is something the matter? You look sort of . weary." Rin decided to say, for that was exactly what Chihiro looked like. Her eyes were burning with an inner flame, it was true. but the effect was lessened considerably by the impressive bags under her eyes, the slouch to her posture, the paleness of her face, and her obvious need for sleep.  
  
Pulling herself out of her momentary bout of murderous thoughts, Chihiro couldn't help but let out a yawn. Smiling sheepishly and rubbing her eyes, it occurred to the teen that she hadn't slept in about twenty- four hours now. she had been working at the ice cream Shoppe all day. and had been out in the spirit world all night. wow. had everything thus far happened in one, crazily eventful night? It seemed ridiculous, but it was true. One moment she was in her room, practically drooling with boredom, and the next she was on a ghost ferry to the spirit world, where her old best friend in his dragon form crashed through the boat and nearly sank it before sweeping her off her feet into the night. right.  
  
"I AM weary," Chihiro admitted, stretching. "I haven't slept in ages!"  
  
"Well, it looks to be about bedtime, in any case," Rin commented, staring at the lonesome, golden ray of light that was seeping through the curtains. "So we should probably both turn in. I don't have a room to spare, but I do have a cot. So if you wouldn't mind setting up camp out here."  
  
"Sounds great!"  
  
"Good, I'll get the sheets then," Rin said, clapping her hands together, and standing up, ready to head over to the linen closet. "Oh! That meeting. it takes place first thing in the evening, so I'll be getting up pretty early to go to it. Tomorrow is the big night after all. I assume you want to come?."  
  
"Well of course I do!" Chihiro enthused. "I'm really determined to do all I can while I stay here! I told you!"  
  
"Well, how about you tell me your opinion AFTER the meeting, and you see how bad things really are here. Chihiro, tomorrow, I'm going to be part of this big 'plan' we've been dancing around all night. We've been organizing it for months. and it's a shame you had to come now, when we're going to execute it. I don't want you getting caught up in something so dangerous." Rin sighed, rubbing her head.  
  
"What exactly have you all been planning?" Chihiro asked, curiosity so peaked she literally leaned forward in her seat to hear what Rin had to say.  
  
".We're sneaking into the bathhouse, disguised as her normal soulless servants. We're going to try and find Yu-Baba and everyone else, and possibly sabotage the baths. Hopefully get a sample of Tiko's tainted spirit poison. It's going to be dangerous and risky and if we're caught and captured Tiko will most likely kill us. even though we've had minimal casualties thus far, I don't think she'll take kindly to us breaking into the Aburaya."  
  
"Oh." Was all Chihiro could say to THAT.  
  
"You still want to get messed up in this?"  
  
"Well yes! I had no misconceptions that this is going to be EASY, or not risky! I'm not so naïve, and I want to be part of this plan TOO!" Chihiro proclaimed, jumping to her feet dramatically, even though she was just about ready to pass out from exhaustion.  
  
"Chihiro! Please don't. I don't want you hurt. When we do this- this thing. I'm not going to be able to protect you, necessarily, and I would just die if you got wounded in this battle when you have so little to do with it," Rin moaned. Having Chihiro back in her life was turning out to be more stressful than the woman had predicted.  
  
"Don't be silly Rin, if we're disguised, I'm quite sure I can take care of myself," Chihiro said flippantly, all of those years on Earth being the independent girl she had turned into shining through now with a vengeance. Rin blinked as she caught sight of it in Chihiro's overall aura. So. she really had started to grow up into a beautiful woman. Good for her.  
  
"I'm not sure." Rin said, still hesitant now, if not only because she was sure Kohaku would kill her as well if anything happened to that girl. Well, maybe not kill, but he'd give her one of those bone chilling, disapproving glares he reserved for people who had really disappointed him, and he was maybe thinking of disemboweling. She had never had that look shed upon her, and didn't plan to have it done, either. Oh God. was she really considering letting Chihiro throw herself into the line of total danger? The group of active rebels had been planning this charade of sorts for months now, and it had been dubbed by some as 'the most risky and possibly fatal plan EVER.' How could she let little Chihiro take part in it? The fact that Rin was one of the ringleaders of the group had no effect on the situation whatsoever, in Rin's eyes. What she decided to do with her life, and what she allowed Chihiro to do with hers, were different things entirely.  
  
"Listen, let me just go to the meeting, so I can see what it's all about, and if I think I won't be able to handle it, I'll just back out! No more complications!" Chihiro assured Rin in her most placating voice, as Rin retrieved all the needed sheets from the linen closet, and directed Chihiro to get the cot under her own bed.  
  
"That doesn't seem like a good deal. If YOU think it's too risky, YOU can choose not to go?" Rin asked smartly, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Pleeaaassee Rin, I really want to help! And you said so yourself, I have a really big effect on the spirit world! Imagine what me being on this mission would do? Imagine what I could do? Admit it, it's a good idea!" Chihiro cried, slapping her fist into her palm, as she had seen her father do on more than one occasion. Ew. She was acting like her father. Chihiro quickly clasped her hands behind her back.  
  
Rin's expression looked contemplative now, and Chihiro crossed her fingers behind her back.  
  
"Okay," she said, heaving a large sigh after a moment. "Come to the meeting, and from there decide what you want to do. but promise me if you feel doubtful you'll back out!" Rin made the girl swear.  
  
"I promise," Chihiro said, slapping the cot down on the ground, and mentally smiling to herself. No way was she going to back down from this operation, no matter how worried anyone was for her. She was going to help take down this Tiko, this serpent who had slithered into the spirit world, for all the woman had done to her friends!  
  
*  
  
"Now remember, just keep a low profile, and you'll be fine at the meeting. Things might get a little heated. but no one ever means any real harm!- Well, hardly, at least. You know how it is, times are tense! And some of the things you might hear could disturb you, so it's okay to be upset. And people might be very happy to have you here, so don't be afraid if you're a little mobbed once everyone starts recognizing you. Oh and then there's -GOD! I really wish you just hadn't come!" Rin moaned, as she and her mortal companion swiftly traveled down the mostly empty streets of the underground sanctuary, apparently up very early by spirit world standards, even though it was now five PM. Chihiro had changed out of her sunny-face shirt to more appropriate robes lent to her by Rin, although she had still kept her slightly off color sneakers. She had even been filled in, briefly, on what the whole plan was about, in case she really did decide to take part in the bathhouse workers scheme, beforehand.  
  
Basically, since Tiko now had a hoard of soulless looking drones working for her, of a sort Rin had never encountered before, the rebels all had to plan their costumes very carefully, dressing in specific kimonos it had taken them weeks to snatch, shifting into appropriate personalities they could not let slip, and even performing all of their tasks in a certain way. Rin had awoken the still bleary eyed Chihiro a full two hours early to teach her all of the proper 'etiquette' the rebels had learned, if she wanted to act the apposite role of Tiko's workers. Chihiro had luckily caught on rather quickly, explaining with a giggle that these servants behaved rather robotically, and that they would be easy to impersonate. Rin had no idea what 'robotic' was supposed to mean, but applauded Chihiro with her quick learning anyway.  
  
"Don't worry about me!" Chihiro said, waving off Rin's concerns for what felt like the umpteenth time that evening. Rin was acting like a worried mother hen! "I can handle it."  
  
"Well, I guess we're about to find out, because here we are." The older woman explained, pointing to what looked like a plain, rustic hut, with a wooden cellar door at its side. Standing protectively over said cellar door was what appeared to Chihiro to be a spirit bouncer of sorts, a tall, muscular ex-bathhouse worker with a stern expression on his bulgy face. Chihiro had the sudden urge to jump behind Rin for safety as they approached the surly looking spirit, but decided it probably wouldn't be a good start to the meeting for her.  
  
"Genma! Still on guard duty, I see?" Rin said amiably to the 'bouncer', her gregarious colors shining through. At the sight of Rin the spirit got a funny smile on his face, and he chuckled deeply.  
  
"Aye, Rin, good to see you at the meeting! I should think the men downstairs would be needing your counseling, seeing as it's been you and Master Kohaku planning out this deal from the start," the tall spirit named Genma admitted, folding his arms. "People seem to be a might worried without Master Kohaku around to help them on the big night, but I'm sure your presence will do them a world of good,"  
  
"So, there's still no word from Kohaku yet," Rin said, gravely. Next to her, a still shy Chihiro tugged on her ponytail irritably. It was really beginning to bother her that she didn't know where Kohaku had gone off to at all.  
  
"No, and I must say, I think it's a little brash of him to have taken off like this, and left all of us like fish out of water. He really does have the brains of this operation. Though, I'm sure his reasons are noble, like they always are," Genma sighed, as though he were talking about a revered figure.  
  
"Maybe this is a test of our own wits. Perhaps he thought we were depending on him to much," Rin declared as she opened the cellar doors, head held high. "I think he wanted to make sure we could pull things off without him, for once,"  
  
"Perhaps," the bouncer conceded, shrugging. Chihiro, still nervous, was just about to follow Rin down the dark cellar stairs, when the muscular spirit called for them to stop.  
  
"Aye! Rin! Who be this little child with you. she isn't. she wouldn't be. mortal?" Genma asked speculatively, apparently not just about to let any old HUMAN into the secret meeting. Not even some spirit members of the underground world were allowed to these, was how Rin had explained it. Some were just not trustworthy enough.  
  
"Yeah, she is, you have something to say about it?" Rin challenged in a threatening tone, not putting up with any riff-raff Genma had to offer that night.  
  
"Well-I-That is.. No! No, I don't. I just thought."  
  
"Well good then. Come on Chihiro, I think we have a meeting to get to," Rin said, grinning, and continuing to trot down the stairs, that were covered in a layer of moss, making everything smell damp and earthy.  
  
Chihiro disappeared down the flight of steps, listening to the sound of Genma yelping, 'THE Chihiro!? Good Lord!' as she left, making sure not to trip down the steep stairs and topple into Rin. The second the two reached the landing, and opened yet another wooden door, to be admitted into the meeting itself, Chihiro noticed Rin began to hold herself a different way, as though she were confident. Strong. Not that she wasn't strong before; it was just now she was. almost acting like a real leader.  
  
This would be interesting.  
  
The meeting room was a large, bright and rather loud one, containing a hefty circular table with many, many seats surrounding it, filled by yuna and other miscellaneous spirits alike, bustling with activity and discussion. It sort of reminded Chihiro of King Arthur's round table, although the people sitting at it were definitely not knights, and there wasn't a king in sight. Everyone looked a little rag tag and common, although they all shared a common goal and flare of passion in their eyes. Chihiro felt a small grin flit across her face as she realized she'd found kindred spirits (no pun intended) in terms of, these people all hated Tiko just as much as she now did. Wonderful.  
  
As soon as the duo was recognized by the assembled group, a new bout of shouting and excited chatter began, Chihiro not only ignored, but also only able to pick up a few broken sentences of what the rebels were saying, as she quietly followed Rin to two vacant seats. Everyone was bombarding Rin with an array of questions and comments. Chihiro really hadn't realized that Rin was so influential or well known. Well, she had always been rather bossy at the bathhouse, so why shouldn't she be a good boss for these rebels? It made sense, and Chihiro knew Rin would make a good leader for these people. She was what they needed if they were to get things done. She could also see Kohaku doing a good job of commanding things in this place.  
  
"Rin! It's good to see you!"  
  
"-Where's he?"  
  
"Yes, Master Kohaku had said-"  
  
"-And he just disappeared with hardly-"  
  
"Are we still going through with?."  
  
"What do you think?"  
  
"Could you please tell us what,"  
  
"We NEED to strike tonight because-"  
  
"And then she said-!"  
  
"What's going on-?"  
  
Chihiro's head was soon spinning with all of the roars and shouts of confusion that were blasting all around her, glad none of the questions were being posed at her, since she would have most likely tried to hide under her chair if they were. However, Rin seemed to be taking it all in with a slightly tolerant look on her face, and Chihiro silently commended her for it. These spirits were crazy!  
  
"PEOPLE!" Rin finally yelled, holding to hands up to signal she wanted silence. "I'm am sorry to confirm that Master Kohaku won't be joining us tonight." There was mass groaning around the room. "BUT, this does not mean we won't go through with our plans! We've been planning too long to put this thing on hold now, people, and we don't really know when Kohaku is going to be back. I assure you he is doing something productive that couldn't be avoided, and we hope to have him back with us soon. Until that time however, we need to go ahead with our plan and get things done! The meeting will continue accordingly, as I think Sei and Rika have some last minute useful information for us," There was a great, pregnant pause, as everyone seemed to be absorbing what the cool and in control Rin had just told them, and even Chihiro was a bit stunned. However, one, curious spirit broke the silence:  
  
"Is that Chihiro?"  
  
Chihiro resisted the overwhelming urge to bang her head against the very hard table, as a new bout of yelling began, this time all of the crazed shouts and cries directed at her: most of them embarrassing praises.  
  
"Miss Chihiro! Welcome back!"  
  
"You're looking so well!"  
  
"Will you be working with us?"  
  
"Do you plan to help?"  
  
"You did so well back at the bathhouse last time!"  
  
"You're like a gift to us!"  
  
"SILENCE!" Rin broke the overwhelming flow of questions now directed at the slightly shell shocked looking fourteen year-old, and, surprisingly, just as Rin had commanded it- there was silence. Apparently everyone knew that Rin would be answering all their questions in good time, from experience. "It is very possible that Chihiro, yes THE Chihiro Tei! - Will be joining us on the mission. I have already briefed her in the proper way to act as a servant of Tiko, and I think everyone will agree with me when I say she's going to be a useful asset." There was a large amount of nodding and happy smiles from the group, and Chihiro was starting to wonder if blushing this much was healthy. Although- as much as she was embarrassed- she was also incredibly flattered. She felt as though all of the Aburaya workers of whom she had left behind a long time ago, were now happily accepting her back with open arms she wanted nothing more than to leap into. She felt warm and tingly inside, again.  
  
"Back to the matters at hand! Sei, Rika?" Rin asked, her voice authoritative as ever, as she raised her eyebrows at two male and female ex- bathhouse workers, seated next to what looked like a chalkboard, at the back. The two nodded stiffly and got to their feet, brushing deep blue robes of chalk dust. The blackboard itself seemed to have an intricate map on it, with many arrows and stars placed all over.  
  
"Now," the male started, in a loud, though slightly nasal voice, that none-the-less caught everyone's attention. "A short summary of how things work tonight. Even though most of us are all to well acquainted with all of the Aburaya's interior, there are certain inner chambers and areas of the Aburaya we have discussed, of which we will be focusing on tonight, if we are to obtain our goals. Here we have drawn a diagram, for your convenience, of where we will be hitting, specifically,"  
  
"Since our main objective here is to locate our captive spirits, and get a sample of Tiko's infamous poison, we will be hitting mainly Tiko's chambers, and the baths themselves. All of our men will be acting as 'normal' servants, in order to sneak into these locations," Rika continued, her voice loud enough to hear from the very opposite side of the room, as well. "The fake servants will be split into two groups, one to sniff out Tiko's chambers, the others to head to the baths and hopefully sabotage some customer's soaks while trying to obtain a sample. The blue arrows here signify where group one will be going, their exact path, if all goes well, and the red arrows are for group two,"  
  
"There will be watch outs for every group as our men snoop around, since if we are caught by Tiko herself, the consequences could be grave," Sei added, frowning seriously.  
  
"Yes, and also, since we have no idea where Tiko is keeping Yu-Baba had the others hidden, it may take some time for our men to actually locate anything useful in her chambers, another factor against us," the female spirit all but sighed.  
  
"We will be entering from the back servant entrance by way of boat, and will travel up the back tower steps to get to the worker's kitchens. From there, as you can see, the men go their separate ways. Three hours later, they meet back up at the kitchen, claiming they have cooking duties that night, and escape back the way they came." Sei explained. Everyone, even Chihiro (Or more like especially Chihiro) seemed to be at the edge of their seats, listening to the grand plan with piqued interest. Even though there would be only twelve actual spirits attempting to pull off this plot, (Now thirteen with Chiharu.) everyone wanted to know exactly how the plan was going to go. They had loved ones taking part in this, after all.  
  
"The boat will be concealed by an invisibility spell," Rika added, folding her arms, and looking a lot like a professor, giving a lecture to her students. Sei looked much the same. "So that our men will surly be able to make a hasty escape, if need be."  
  
"Knock on wood," Sei joked, trying to lighten the mood, and failing miserably. Rika took in a breath, clapping her hands together.  
  
"Well, if everyone has a clear idea of how this is going to work now, I think we'll be able to take questions. Keep in mind actual participants of the plan will be briefed again before they go out tonight," she said.  
  
Chihiro looked up to Rin, but the woman had no questions, most likely because she had planned the whole thing, and in fact looked quite pleased with the presentation.  
  
One plump yuna off to the side raised her hand.  
  
"Um, excuse me, but do we have NO idea what sort of conditions Yu- Baba and the others are in? No idea where they are being held?" she asked, timidly.  
  
"None." Sei said flatly. "We know they are being held prisoner somewhere, since Tiko told us outright she was holding Yu-Baba as her captive when we were still working under her. but other than that we are clueless."  
  
"We are guessing she might have them in a confining talisman," Rika admitted, albeit hesitantly. ". It seems the easiest answer, but it's only a vague guess. We're just going to have to go in there and hope for the best," However the crowd seemed pleased by this answer, and began to talk about it heatedly among themselves, as Rika and Sei nodded thankfully and returned to their seats.  
  
"What's a confining talisman?" Chihiro asked, getting one of those 'I'm a dumb human', feelings in the pit of her stomach again. It was times like these when she realized, no matter how at home she felt, she WASN'T a true spirit.  
  
"It's a way to keep someone captive without much hassle," Rin said, bluntly. "The talisman itself can be anything, though most usually its precious stones, since they are the easiest to work magic on, and all you do is recite an incantation, and whomever you want to be imprisoned will be. how do I put this?. shrunken down, sort of, and sucked into the talisman, it now serving as their prison until the caster of the spell wishes them to be freed, or someone breaks the talisman with their own hands." Rin explained. Chihiro decided she sort of understood.  
  
"Oh," she replied, twisting her ponytail, still held up by the sparkly purple hair elastic, thoughtfully. "And why do we assume Yu-Baba and everyone is being held under this spell, then? It seems sort of random."  
  
"Because it's the most commonly used, and the most effective. Besides, we've lost trace of all of the captive's auras, as well, and unless their dead, which Tiko told us they weren't, a way to loose feel of their aura is to be trapped in a talisman." Rin elaborated.  
  
"I see," And she did! Kind of. It was sort of confusing and hard for the girl to imagine, but she was working on it.  
  
"AHEM!" A tall, male spirit cried, clearing his throat to get everyone's attention off their own little discussions, and onto him. After a moment, everyone dutifully turned their heads his way. He was a strong looking spirit, with thick dark hair and dashing red robes, perhaps in his mid forties, although Chihiro openly admitted to having absolutely no idea how spirit aging worked. Who knows, he could have been 200!  
  
"Seeing as it's getting late, and we would like to put the plan into action sometime before morning, I would request that all who are going to be participating in the mission, please leave the room to the back chambers now!" he boomed. Immediately everyone broke into chatter AGAIN, though this time it sounded a whole lot more worried, and a lot less lively. People were kissing and hugging their friends and family who were participating good bye, in case the worse happened, and some were even teary as a grim troop of yuna and other spirits marched their way to a back door, disappearing behind it as the red robed spirit beckoned them in. Chihiro inwardly gulped.  
  
At this point, Rin turned back to her younger friend, and gave her a hard stare that plainly stated: This is it. Your last chance to back down. You in, or out?  
  
Chihiro didn't even have to think twice.  
  
Even if she was seriously hurt, or caught and imprisoned, or even. killed. she was going to go through with this. She had to, or else she would spend her days wondering how things would have gone had she been there to help, and she couldn't stand THAT. Besides, there was this little voice in the back of her head, that was telling her it was important she see the bathhouse again. that she was going to be needed in some way. Chihiro knew better then to ignore important messages like THAT, and thus, she nodded her head happily at Rin, standing up with the woman and following her to the door. Rin didn't even put up a fight. The people were loving the idea of Chihiro helping out with all this, and Chihiro looked so positive about it all, the matter appeared to be out of her hands at this point. Kohaku was going to skin her alive.  
  
As Chihiro neared the doors, her palms a wee bit sweaty, she was suddenly stopped as something latched onto her leg, nearly toppling her over. She gasped and looked down, her face breaking into a sweet smile as she saw it was only the little yuna from before. Kita. And she had brought two other, equally as petite yuna along this time.  
  
"Ms. Chihiro!" Kita cried in her adorably high-pitched voice. "Please be careful! Don't get hurt!"  
  
"Yes, be careful!" Kita's friends agreed, dancing around nervously, obviously having already made the prodigy mortal girl their new idol. Chihiro's smile broadened.  
  
"I'll do my best to be careful AND find everyone we lost!" she assured them, just voicing these positive words giving her a sort of emotional adrenalin rush, just what she needed to encourage her to get going.  
  
"We love you Chihiro!" the little yuna cried, as Chihiro bade them goodbye and rushed off to catch up with Rin, already passing through the door.  
  
Cries of good luck to Chihiro in particular were called out as she too disappeared through the door, a giddy grin plastered to her face, her limbs shaking with the excitement and utter suddenness of it all. These spirits may have been preparing for this day for months, but for Chihiro, it was new and a little frightening.  
  
She was going to help the spirit world if it was the last thing she did.  
  
*  
  
Chihiro found herself, but a couple hours later, sitting in a boat in the dead of the night right next to Rin, quietly gliding across the deep water from behind the Aburaya, sporting a typical servants garb, that included a convenient mask that hid the spirits give-away features. Next to Chihiro's boat, another one splashed alongside hers, containing the other seven rebels who would be sneaking into the bathhouse that night.  
  
As promised, the slightly nervous group had been once again been briefed on exactly how things were going to work that night, Chihiro finding herself immensely grateful to be in Rin's group, the one that would be going to the baths. Everyone was feeling a mix of downright fear and complete readiness to go beat the woman who had wronged them so, and had accepted Chihiro into their group easily, seeing her as nothing more than a good omen, or a message from the heavens. Her very presence was giving them all confidence, and Chihiro would have it no other way.  
  
The members of the group were mainly a bunch of durable and brave looking young male spirits of whom Chihiro couldn't quite distinguish between, however there were a few characters Chihiro had already picked out as her favorites. One of them was a particularly young spirit boy who had been making playful jokes to ease Chihiro's obviously tense posture when Rin was too busy conferring with some older, graver looking spirits. He was named Po, and had, Chihiro supposed, relatively handsome features for a spirit.  
  
The others Chihiro took notice of were the other two, girl yuna along with the group. Twins, who were apparently masters of disguise and craftiness. They were a bit giggly, admittedly, but seemed to be very adamant about simply ripping Tiko's guts out for all her crimes. They were in fact a bit TOO exuberant for Chihiro, but she liked them well enough. Anyway, the only other female on the crew was a fat, churlish looking yuna with arms as thick as watermelons. She wasn't overly friendly.  
  
"We're almost there," Rin whispered into Chihiro's ear, and the mortal girl, in turn, gripped her friend's hand hard for comfort. Rin graced her with her award-winning smile.  
  
The outfits were long, black kimonos, and silver looking gloves that were supposed to imitate metal. Chihiro didn't know why any spirits hand's, evil or not, would be metal, but she pushed it to the back of her mind for later inspection. The masks were red with purple streaks and slits for eye- holes, a bit evil looking if you were looking for Chihiro's opinion, although Po had assured her they were just part of the 'new costume', for the 'new and improved', bathhouse. (Yeah, it's improved if you're masochistic! Po had scoffed.) Everything was a bit heavy to move in, though not impossible.  
  
Finally, the boats silently docked by some jagged rocks near the back entrance, a spirit securely tying them both up, and another making sure the invisibility spells were still safely active. Chihiro hopped out of the boat, following Rin like a lost puppy, as the group began to quietly scour the rocks, scrambling up their steep edges, and inching along the Aburaya's side, until they had reached a small, white door, that was obviously the servant's entrance they were looking for. Chihiro found herself staring up rather dreamily at the Aburaya, thinking of all of the memorable, if not slightly frightening, adventures she had had in this place, four years ago, reminiscing on how much it had changed, and how she knew in her heart of hearts it would never be the place she once knew.  
  
So wrapped up in her thoughts, Chihiro missed a rock to grip onto while making her way up the rocks, and as a sudden gust of wind in the darkness of the night whished by. She let out a small gasp, even as she fell, making sure not to utter to loud a cry, for fear of alerting someone her group was trying to break in. She squeezed her eyes shut, ready for the inevitable cracking of her head against a jagged boulder when- Po caught her by the wrist and firmly swung her up on to solid ground.  
  
"Careful there, we wouldn't want you to scar that pretty face of yours," he chuckled extremely quietly, and Chihiro blushed thankfully. She had been scared there for a second.  
  
"You okay?" Rin whispered, as the man with the red robes from the meeting, opened yet another door now, this one leading to the back staircase that would, presumably, guide the spirits to the servant's kitchens.  
  
"Yeah," Chihiro whispered, smiling confidently for the nice woman. Rin smiled back and disappeared into the bathhouse, Chihiro, with one last longing look at the new moon hanging innocently in the star dappled sky, thinking that she wished Kohaku were by her side just now, following suit.  
  
The group scurried as stealthily as they could up the narrow, winding staircase, everyone with the exception of their human companion apparently intimately familiar with all of their surroundings, although many looked nervous to be back. They had not parted with this place well. When they reached the end of the staircase, Rin commanded in a sharp, ever quiet voice that they were to not only slip into character now, and not break it no matter what until they met back here in three hours, but also to split into their groups and head their separate ways. Comforting glances were exchanged all around, and Po mouthed 'Good luck', to Chihiro, who mouthed it back. They were to be in separate groups from this point on, he with the watermelon armed yuna, and Chihiro with the slightly homicidal twins and Rin, not to mention two other faceless male spirits. Chihiro took comfort in the fact that they were notably beefy.  
  
With that the door was shoved open, and everyone slipped into their obedient, eerily robotic characters, no longer free, good hearted spirits, but soulless servants for a woman who knew no limits to her own evil. The charade was on.  
  
The two groups, single file, as that was how it was customary for the servants to travel, now snaked off in their different ways through the kitchen, Chihiro mentally wishing Po and his companions one last good luck, before all of her thoughts became completely focused on her main objective: Find a sample of that potion. They had to find a sample of that potion. And maybe sabotage a few baths so that innocent spirits weren't marinated in a concoction that would turn them into a hell bent monster for Lady Tiko, who would add them to her heartless army and continue her takeover of the spirit world. Right. That.  
  
Soon the group was traveling out of the kitchen, and down the crowded, familiar, but infinitely unfamiliar halls of the Aburaya. Real servants who looked and walked just like them, traveled all around, a purpose in all of their steps, with seemingly no one servant lazily wandering about, and Chihiro felt a cold shiver go down her spine. These servants weren't the friendly, lively bunch she had once seen working here. They looked as though they had no lives outside their jobs, and were controlled by some powerful overlord, like puppets, only doing their master's bidding. Which was probably exactly what was happening, come to think of it.  
  
Rin led the group, looking as though she knew exactly where she was going, while Chihiro, who had somehow ended up as the caboose at the very back, had no recollection of just how to get to the baths. She couldn't remember, and hadn't studied the map Sei and Rika had shown everyone as closely as she should. But she felt confident being under Rin's charge, in any case.  
  
They traveled down some halls, up some stairs, past numerous servants and even customers, none who could tell that the six servants were playing a farce, as Chihiro had somehow feared they might. Chihiro altered her movements slightly to act more like the real servants did, noticing they had certain ways their heads bobbed as they moved, and certain ways they held their hands, which really WERE metal! Chihiro narrowed her eyes behind her scary mask as she studied one real servant of Tiko's. It was funny, but up close, these servants seemed to be the exact robots she had thought they acted like. But there were no such things in the spirit world!- were there? Perhaps she would have to discuss this with Rin at a later date, as it was quite odd.  
  
All the while, there was still a part of Chihiro that was numb with shock, unable to believe all this was happening. Was she really DOING THIS? She shoved the thought aside for better, more patriotic thoughts. This was no time to freeze up!  
  
Finally, they reached the bathing area. The stiffly walked by numerous baths, and Chihiro was sure not one of them wasn't inwardly wincing in pain as they watched the customers laugh amiably in their baths, having no idea that they were slowly but surly killing themselves as they did so. Everyone customer here tonight would be a tainted spirit before the month was up, and they had no idea. Chihiro wanted just to start screaming and get all of the oblivious sprits out of their baths before the harm was done, but knew that it would be foolish, since it would only get she and her companions caught, and ruin the plan that would hopefully save all future victims if all went well.  
  
"Erk!" Chihiro felt her heart nearly stop as someone grabbed her arm from the side, roughly drawing her apart from her group. She hardly stifled a scream of fear, as she watched her companions dutifully march along their way, oblivious to the fact they were one rebel short. Oh why oh why had she been in the back!? Chihiro's world was practically moving in slow motion.  
  
Turning her head, expecting the worse, Chihiro could only groan as she found exactly what she had been dreading standing in front of her, gripping her upper arm with more force than was absolutely needed. It was a real servant. And he looked to be higher in status than the normal one, have more predominant marks on his mask, and being a great deal taller. Perfect. Bloody perfect.  
  
"You," it ordered, in a voice that was awfully mechanical. Chihiro was shaking like a leaf in the wind, unable to reply. How would she even find her group if she got away from this mindless servant? She didn't really know where they were going! Should she just find her way back to the kitchen, and hide in a cabinet, waiting like a scared fool for the three hours to be up? Oh! This was a terrible turn of events, and Chihiro was having trouble holding back a wave of tears. "You must come with me to bath number two-zero-four. Tiko's orders,"  
  
"M-m-me?" Was all Chihiro could get out, in her best mechanical- sounding voice. Sweat dripped down her face from behind her mask, and she was suddenly incrediably glad for the concealing costume piece, because she was absolutely positive she wouldn't be able to hide the fear from her face if she was without it, and then her game would be up.  
  
"You." It replied, harshly. "We have a very important 'customer', and he needs guarding. Are you not a warrior vessel?" It asked, jerking its head at her mask. Chihiro didn't know what a warrior vessel was, but she did know better than to deny that fact, if that's what this guy thought. So she nodded submissively. "Good then, come with me, it won't take long." It was odd, but everything this servant said had absolutely no emotion. No change in tone. It was as though it were her computer back home, talking to her.  
  
The still quivering, though rapidly recovering Chihiro, followed the servant down some more halls, inwardly groaning as traveled farther and farther away from her old companions. When they finally got bath number two- zero-four, Chihiro found it to be concealed by rice paper walls. The superior looking servant turned to her now.  
  
"Just watch over this one, are Tiko's orders. Make sure it bathes for a good hour at least, and does nothing funny. You see anything odd, even remotely odd, you report back immediately, understood? Tiko is doing a special sweep tonight, and I am needed, and cannot take this job myself. Understood?" It asked again. All Chihiro could do was nod in as robotic a way she could manage, pale as snow. Uh-oh - a special sweep? She had to warn the others! However, she could not, for the servant stayed to watch her fully enter the room, and she had no choice but to go. She decided firmly, as soon as she was sure that servant was gone, she was going to make a mad dash to warn everyone of Tiko's plans, no matter she was clueless as to where everyone currently was. She couldn't bear it if any of her friends were caught!!  
  
Taking deep breaths, Chihiro entered the room, which was relatively small, and contained a simple, steaming bath in the middle of the room. She walked towards it, in case the servant was watching her shadow from outside, as she had the sneaking suspicion he was, all the while planning her quick escape. Pictures of Rin being captured and imprisoned with Yu- Baba were dancing through her head, and she could think of nothing else, her mind a mess of scrambled, half-baked ideas and ridiculously heroic rescue plans.  
  
However, as she peered through the steam of the room, she suddenly felt a pang of compassion for whoever was taking that bath. They were probably a kind, good, loving spirit, who had a family back home (She knew she couldn't sound any more naïve, but did spirits have families?) and people who loved it. people who were going to be crushed when this poor spirit died and became a brainless demon. Squaring her shoulders, Chihiro prepared to go up to the spirit and order him out of the tub, hoping, if this one hadn't been sitting in it long enough, she could still save it, even though in her heart she knew this one was a goner. Rin had said the tainted spirit disease, so to speak, spread faster than anything! The thought depressed Chihiro, but she had to do SOMETHING.  
  
Wait. if she told this spirit what was really going on in the bathhouse. maybe he could spread the word to the outside world! Maybe he could warn all of the warring spirits of Lady Tiko's treachery, and then everyone would rise to overthrow her in an act of spirit power! Chiharu felt the heat of excitement rise to her cheeks, (although it could have been all the steam in the room,) and she quickly scampered in a very un- robotic-servant type way over to the bath, lunging forward to spin the spirit around, and order him out of the tub. This could be it! The answers to all of the rebel's problems, and the inevitable fall of Tiko! She slapped one hand on the spirit's shoulder, twisted him around, and-  
  
The bottom fell out of her stomach, and her breath got caught in her throat. She felt as though someone had just stabbed in the gut, and then twisted the knife around a bit, just to see her squirm and bleed with sheer agony.  
  
The spirit soaking in the bath was.the spirit saturated in tainted spirit poison was.  
  
Kohaku.  
  
*  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
Now that's a cliffhanger! Sorry there wasn't too much fluff in this chapter, but it was very. informative, maybe? Please don't be too angry about the ending, I promise I'll make it up to you. somehow. Just review, pleeeaassee. I'm feeling very unloved over here, and I'm sick. So I'd appreciate it, because it would, undoubtedly, make my killer cold disappear! Thanks!  
  
Rio Grande.~ 


	4. Casualties

Hey all!  
  
First off, I would sincerely like to apologize for the terrible cliffhanger last time. It was cruel and uncalled for! But whatever, I thought it was cool. And look on the bright side: Now you get to find out what happens! Sweet relief! Sorry this took so long, but you know it was the holidays and crud.  
  
PLEASE REVIEW!  
  
The faster you review, the faster I work- it's the truth.  
  
I don't own Spirited Away and enjoy. (Sorry this chapter is short, I could have extended it but decided to save all that for the chapter five.)  
  
* Spirited Back  
  
By Rio Grande  
  
Chapter Four: Casualties  
  
*  
  
The first thing she felt was shock. Bone numbing, heart stopping, fist clenching shock. Her legs even gave out and she collapsed to her knees, feeling her bones slapping the cold, tiled floor, completely numb to the pain.  
  
The next emotion to fly through Chihiro's heart and mind with lighting speed. was anger.  
  
Letting out a strangled choking noise that came from the back of her throat, she leaped for Kohaku's arm again, trying to lift him out of the bath with the pathetic amount of arm muscle she owned. Didn't he know this bath was poisoned!? Didn't he know what staying like this was going to kill him!? Did he not realize that this would turn him into a monster? A tainted spirit? That idiot!  
  
However, Kohaku did not comply to Chihiro's mindless gurgling sounds and desperate yet very weak tugs on his arm, her very essence it seemed, shaking with fear. In fact, the boy looked nothing more than vaguely annoyed, shrugging his arm away and moving to the other side of the tub, eyeing Chihiro warily.  
  
"What are you doing, servant? My time here isn't up yet. Tiko said at least an hour." Kohaku explained, as if this should be very obvious. Chihiro desperately willed the tears not to come as her befuddled brain tried to work out what Kohaku was saying. Servant? Tiko? An hour?  
  
'The mask!' Chihiro realized, eyes wide. She was still wearing the servant's costume! No wonder Kohaku didn't understand what she was doing! He thought she was just another servant.  
  
Relieved that everything that had just transpired was simply a misunderstanding, and that there was still hope for survival, Chihiro wrenched off her mask, revealing her unbound caramel tresses and familiar face.  
  
"K-Kohaku!" she cried out. "It's me! Chihiro." From his corner of the bath, Kohaku's eyes widened considerably, he paled, and a look of something very un-Kohaku like flitted across his face.  
  
Fear. Total, unadulterated and pure. fear. Though for what, Chihiro was unsure. Why would she scare him?  
  
"Chihiro." he breathed, his voice holding the pain of someone who had seen many things, had lived many lives. and had never once experienced something so horrible as what was happening now. Chihiro scrubbed at the tears still diligently pouring down her face, suddenly feeling very helpless. She reached out a hand, and beckoned Kohaku to come closer, her eyes wide with unwavering hope. yet a deeper sadness.  
  
"Come here, K-Kohaku. W-w-we have to get you o-out of here!" she croaked urgently, leaning over as far as she could, in an effort to at least touch Kohaku, still persistently sitting in the corner. Quick as lighting, Kohaku was by her side, taking her by the arm, and pushing her back. Chihiro's eyebrows furrowed together, and she made another grab for his arm, finally catching his hand, and trying to tug it towards her, her mind accepting to coherent thoughts except one: She needed to get her friend out of the tub at all costs.  
  
"Chihiro, be careful, don't fall into the water," Kohaku explained, worried for her. Chihiro barely bit back a wail of confusion. Why was he worried for HER? What was going through Kohaku's head at that moment, and why in God's name was he not getting out of the tub? Chihiro's throat was almost completely closed up now as she tried to speak, her anger getting the better of her.  
  
"Don't I fall into the water?!" she screamed, all out sobbing now, shaking her head back and forth furiously as she tugged on Kohaku hand for all she was worth, crying with frustration as he refused to budge. "LOOK at you! You're totally SUBMURGED in POISON!"  
  
"Shhh. shh Chihiro don't yell. they'll hear you, and they'll come." Chihiro was hardly listening to him though, mouthing 'No no no' now, as the world itself seemed to stop spinning around her. She was getting dizzy and sick, finally understanding that it was too late. if Kohaku had even been in the water for the duration of the time she had been with him, he would be tainted now. On his way to becoming a demon.  
  
He was going to die.  
  
With this one soul wrenching thought, Chihiro lost her grip on Kohaku's slickly wet hand, and went slamming to the ground, colliding with the hard cold floor, slippery and filled with the musky warm scent of different bath medicines. all of which were filled with a vicious poison designed to kill unsuspecting spirits. and eventually take over the entire spirit world itself. the very thought drove the utterly depressed Chihiro to the very brink of insanity, the cruelness of it all bearing down on her worse than if she had just been punched in the gut.  
  
"Get off me!!" she screamed, snapping up from the ground, and pulling at her robes, now damp with the water from the floor. The tainted water from the floor. The unnatural water from the floor. "Get off me! You'll kill me!" she continued, her voice hoarse and desperate.  
  
Through her haze of pain and mutinous fear, a cool hand gripped her firmly by the arm, another one carefully supporting her back, as they resolutely wrenched her off the ground, bringing her to stand next to them, soulful eyes boring down into her very being.  
  
"Chihiro," Kohaku said, his voice very calm and cold, but by the feeling of his pulse racing through his hands on her arm, he was anything but a serene sea inside. He was scared. Just like her. "Chihiro you have got to calm down," he ordered. Chihiro looked back up to him, her gaze not so much soulful as it was full of a passionate fire, and at the same time a dead emotion that should never have been there in the first place. Kohaku was willing to bear the brunt of that dark emotion, it was his fault she was back here at all, in any case. And it was killing her, to see her beloved Spirit World in such tatters. Obviously. His poor friend.  
  
However, the fact that Kohaku was now out of the water, and standing there with her, seemed to calm Chihiro down considerably. She let out a long sigh of relief, letting her forehead fall onto his hard chest, closing her eyes and clasping her hands to her heart. She bit her lip as she tried to collect her thoughts after having them violently scattered without her permission just moments ago. What had come over her? She had been acting like a crazy person.  
  
"I'm sorry." she murmured, her breathing still heavy and ragged, obviously not as composed as she was valiantly pretending to be.  
  
"It's all right," Kohaku assured her, running hands through her hair in a comforting motion. "I'm sorry too Chihiro, sorry you had to see this. This isn't fair. Not to you, not to me. not to the rebels," he admitted, that all to familiar cool and unwavering voice of his, taking some of the pain of his words away for Chihiro. But not enough. She was still quietly crying, burrowing her head into him, uncaring that all he wore was a small towel around his waist.  
  
"Why were you in that bath Kohaku?" she needed to know, trying to push aside the overwhelming despair long enough to get a straight answer out of him. "Why did you do this to yourself? Do you realize what this means?" she questioned harshly, looking up at him.  
  
"Yes," he replied simply. Chihiro held back the urge to take him by the neck and shake all the answers out of him. Why was he so obviously eluding her queries?  
  
"WHY did you do it Kohaku?! Tell me- please!" she whispered urgently, her face close to his as she stared into his deep, bottomless eyes that held years of wisdom and life of the likes she couldn't comprehend. However, for all that she knew Kohaku was a very clever God; he suddenly seemed like the stupidest person she had ever met.  
  
"It was a trade," he said after a long moments pause, averting her graze. Chihiro tried to earn in back with an unwavering amount of curiosity.  
  
"A trade..?" she asked, requesting he explain exactly what he meant when he said 'trade'. Whatever it was, Chihiro had a sinking feeling it didn't bode well for either of them.  
  
". Did Rin tell you about the invisible walls that now surround the Aburaya's property, and prevent any of us from contacting the outside world?" he asked softly.  
  
"Yes," she quickly assured him, shaking her head almost too hard as she waited with bated breath for him to elucidate.  
  
"Last night, when I left you to fight that tainted spirit-it. it wasn't a tainted spirit," he sighed, lowering his hands down to her shoulders and embracing her, speaking with his head on her shoulder and his mouth to her ear, whispering everything so that it tickled her hair and made her concentrate on his words. "It was one of her entourage, one of her ghost men."  
  
"But those are worse than tainted spirits!" Chihiro exclaimed softly, remembering Rin's depiction of the fearsome demons, which flocked the Aburaya like protective bodyguards.  
  
"Yes, but they did not come to do battle with me, as they usually do. This time they came with a message, from Tiko herself," he continued. "She wanted to make a bargain with me." he trailed off at this point, as if pained.  
  
"What was the bargain?!" Chihiro was beyond desperate to find out what had happened at this point: she was frantic.  
  
"She said that if. I bathed in her poison. and thus submitted myself to become a tainted spirit. she would lower the invisible shield around the Aburaya, thus freeing all of the workers to tell the world about her terrible deeds."  
  
There was a deafening silence, at which point Chihiro was positive her heart plummeted into her stomach.  
  
"And you AGREED?!" she found herself shrieking. No sooner had the words left her mouth than Kohaku had his hand clamped over her lips, eyebrows knitted together.  
  
"Shhh." he said, concentrating on the sounds outside, making sure no one had been alerted to check on him. Behind his hand, Chihiro's mouth was quivering, and large salty tears were slipping down her face again. Kohaku glanced at her, and looked immediately apologetic. "God, I'm sorry Chihiro," he quickly amended, hugging her close to him once more. Chihiro let out short, gasping sobs into his chest, shaking her head as she thought of how deeply unfair the trade had been. Who would ask something so vindictive of her Kohaku? It was unreal.  
  
"She made me come to the Aburaya directly after I read the letter if I wanted to go through with the trade," he explained in a soothing tone. "That's why I wasn't able to meet up with you before I left. That's why I couldn't discuss it with you,"  
  
"Would it have made a difference?" Chihiro asked honestly. Kohaku looked back down, thinking hard. What was his life compared to the lives of all those other spirits he could save by letting them know about the bath house's treachery? What was one river God's life compared to possibly hundreds of innocent spirit's? As he stared down at Chihiro, whose expression was filled to the brink with adoration and love for him, he admitted that no matter how much this one mortal cherished him, and would do anything to keep him safe. he would have still made the same decision, for the entire Spirit World's welfare. For HER welfare.  
  
"I'm sorry," he tried, shaking his head at her helplessly. What more was there to say? What was done was done, and he didn't regret forfeiting his life for others. In the back of her head Chihiro knew she would have done the same thing if placed in Kohaku's position, but it made the situation no less devastating.  
  
"I understand," she got out in a shaky voice, the volume of the situation settling down inside her as she tried furiously to come to grips with it so that Kohaku wouldn't have to see her so broken when there was nothing he could do to make it better. He had sacrificed more than she had, (His own LIFE!) and it was cruel to him if she didn't act as a strong support for her friend when he needed it most.  
  
Nonetheless, she could not hide the sadness in her eyes, and it made Kohaku want to hold her until all of her grief had melted away and she was his old, happy go lucky, brave and wonderful Chihiro again. Free of real worries or regrets, free of the burdens of the terrible war he had dragged her into.  
  
He wanted to take her pain away. and before he knew it his head was dipping down towards hers, eyes glossy with misery and the need to feel whole again after he had just soaked half of his soul away.  
  
Chihiro resisted the urge to gasp as she realized what Kohaku was doing, compliantly closing her eyes and letting his lips graze hers softly. finding she much enjoyed the sensation.  
  
'I've never kissed anyone before,' she admitted as he pressed his lips more firmly against her soft pink ones. 'But I can't think of anyone else I'd rather kiss more,' She leaned into his soft touch, trying desperately to let this kiss make her forget everything. Actually wanting its mystifying affect on her to render her dumbstruck- if not only so that she could pretend things were perfect once more, and not have to be conscious of the fact that the boy holding her in his arms had just damned himself.  
  
"Mm-Eagh!" Chihiro gasped, surprised as she was wrenched away from Kohaku and then swiftly thrown behind him. "W-what are you doing?" she wheezed, still seeing from stars from the kiss, and notably disoriented.  
  
"She's coming," Kohaku explained simply, apparently utterly unfazed by what had just transpired between the two.  
  
"Who?" Chihiro asked, afraid to know.  
  
"Tiko," No sooner had the young God uttered her name then the paper door was thrown open with a terrifying slam, and Chihiro looked up to find a . woman. Of sorts.  
  
Her face, as it was appearing to be a trend in the new Aburaya, was covered in a mask. A metal mask with no holes, just designs representing any impossibly beautiful face. Her robes were bright crimson and clung close to her, accenting her curves and flowing past her ankles. Her hands were concealed by her long sleeves that were trimmed in gold, and her hair was a deep purple color, unfeasibly straight with not one strand out of place. Her aura radiated dark, tormenting emotions and cruel intentions. Just being near her made Chihiro quiver with fear.  
  
Flocking around her were four or five demons of which Chihiro could only classify as her ghost men, since they fit the description Rin had given her of them perfectly; they were tall and wore dark black robes with a shining red film over them, masks that seemed to be carved out of bone with only hollow indents as faces. In addition, they all carried tall glaives with ancient writing engraved along the thin, sharp blades.  
  
It was then that Chihiro realized she no longer had her own mask on, and was nothing but a trembling girl.  
  
"Mortal," Tiko hissed in a tone that never rose an octave to express emotion, and seemed to be more of a hiss than a voice. She cocked her head at Chihiro with apparent interest, and raised one arm up to point accusingly at her. It was petrifying.  
  
"GO!" Chihiro distantly heard Kohaku yell through her veil of fear and confusion that had covered her vision, and rendered her immobile. Why couldn't she move? Why was she so scared of this one woman, who had yet to directly hurt her? However she had no time to really ponder this, because before she could scream 'let go of me!', Kohaku had grabbed her by the arm, and hurled her through the, thankfully open, window behind the bath.  
  
This action alone surprised Chihiro so totally, that she had no time to scream as she soared through the air, going back first perfectly through the square window. The last image she saw before falling rapidly downwards was Kohaku staring at her with a look that spoke on many levels. one of them saying he was sorry, the other that he didn't want her to worry. and one. one that he loved her. Chihiro saved that look, and engraved it in the back of her mind, to be resurrected when she had time to admire it.  
  
The other thing the Earth girl saw so startlingly clear was Tiko, her glinting mask positioned directly towards her. And even though there was no real expression on it, she knew that the face was frowning furiously at her, commanding her to jump back into her clutches.  
  
Suddenly Chihiro really was thankful she had just been tossed out a window.  
  
"OOF!" Chihiro choked as she connected with a thick tree branch about a two flights down. She squeezed her eyes shut, holding back a cry of pain as she felt her back begin to flare up. Quick as she could she sat up, crawling along the branch towards the Aburaya, determined to get back into that room and help Kohaku, no matter how wretched she felt now. She couldn't leave him alone with that woman! Tiko was going to hurt him. Still gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of her, she grasped onto a ledge that was a good two floors below Kohaku's, wondering how she was going to possibly make it all the way back up to his window.  
  
'Maybe I shouldn't' be trying to get back to him.' a little part of Chihiro was insisting. 'I mean. he DID go through all of the trouble of chucking me out a window, and I know Kohaku never likes to hurt me, so he must have been really desperate. Maybe I should just head his warning and stay out of the way. Tiko won't hurt him now that they have a deal, and he's already destined to become a tainted spirit.' Chihiro's throat closed up as she remembered that fact, it alone gaining the power to push her doubts to the back of her mind as she tried to scramble up the wall.  
  
"Maybe if I can go through this window and make my way back up through the stiars," she decided, pushing the window closest to her open, after discovering it impossible to gain the height needed to get up two floors without a staircase.  
  
However, there was no landing beyond the window Chihiro through herself threw, and she let out a terrified shriek as she found her self plummeting in the exact opposite direction she wanted to go in. Downwards.  
  
"NOOOOO!!" she wailed the whole way down the surprise chute, thrashing her arms violently as she pictured Kohaku's last loving look. When would she see him next if not now? The tunnel she had haphazardly thrown herself through was dark and endless, and Chihiro found herself dreading the end, hoping there would be something soft to break her fall.  
  
"EEYYAAA!" she cried, as she slammed through an open cabinet, flying out and landing with an 'oomph', onto a large pillow just beyond it. Chest constricting so much it hurt, she rested her head on the soft, purple thing, thanking all the Gods that it had been strategically placed there. She rested this way for a minute, hesitant to find out where exactly it was she had landed. Why did these things always happen to HER?  
  
"Well, what mischief have you gotten yourself into now, eh?" a familiar, croaking voice asked with a slight twinge of teasing to their tone.  
  
'That voice.' Chihiro thought, eyes widening, as she slowly lifted her head off the pillow. "Kamajii!" she cried, spotting the boiler man himself sitting atop his perch, numerous limbs pulling and yanking on the ropes, and stamping papers that surrounded him like a veil, a scowl still fixed on his face which was even then partially hidden by his dark glasses. The fourteen year-old leapt to her feet and scurried across the room, even though she was still trembling inside and out, eventually coming to throw herself at the spider-spirit's feet, unable to go any further. "Oh Kamajii." she moaned, covering her head and biting her lip.  
  
"What's wrong with you, young one? Stop your whining and tell me what's amiss!" The elderly spirit demanded, arms diligently going about their work even as he tilted his head towards the girl at his feet. A mortal he had highly doubted he would ever see again.  
  
"It's too horrible to even speak of Kamajii. everything has gone so wrong!" Chihiro cried, raising her head to stare at her old 'grandfather' with wide eyes that were blood shot red from crying so much in the past hour.  
  
"Aye, well, I can't disagree with you there," Kamajii acknowledged, freeing one arm to make a sweeping gesture around the room. "The Aburaya isn't what it used to be,"  
  
"B-but. it's Kohaku!" she cried, feeling as though the whole world should just automatically understand the grief she was experiencing, because the tragedy was just that big.  
  
"Yes? And what's that young one gotten himself into now?" Chihiro closed her eyes, taking in the heavy smell of scents and medicines that were sent up to the baths, and the familiar odor of the boiler room, all coal and flame.  
  
"He's going to be changed into a tainted spirit," she got out in a low voice that was thick with anger and helplessness. This seemed to give Kamajii pause, and he halted for a millisecond in his working, eyebrows furrowed together, as though he was considering stopping .  
  
"I see," he said gravely, arms starting back up, as though they had never paused in the first place. "That's a shame,"  
  
"It's TERRIBLE!" Chihiro bawled, head back in her arms as she rocked back and forth. "And there's nothing I can do to help him. he chose to go through with this," she sniffled, trying to calm herself as she admitted throwing herself into yet another tantrum would do little to nothing in aiding Kohaku. And above all she had to help her friend.  
  
Little fluffy things moving around her ankles urged the girl to look down and see what was dancing around the floor. A miniscule smile graced her face as she spotted the Susuwatari swarming about her, their wide white eyes, the only part of their body visible besides their tiny spindly legs, sad and watering for their old friend. Chihiro let one jump into her palm and gazed at it affectionately. They remembered her!  
  
Chihiro and the Susuwatari shared a bonding moment, all tiny peeping sounds from the tiny black balls and watery grins from Chihiro as she let them hop onto her new sneakers, hardly minding the sooty spots they left, until Kamajii decided that was enough of a break for his little workers.  
  
"Hey- back to the job for you all!" he barked, thick mustache twitching in annoyance. The Susuwatari made little faces at the spirit, but got back to work hauling coal into the furnace anyway, with little glances back at Chihiro. She watched them resume their vocation silently, not as eager to help them out as she once had been, knowing they were fully capable of getting the job done, and not naïve to the fact, this time around, that Kamajii wasn't the slave driver he pretended to be.  
  
There was silence in the boiler room, save the occasional worried mumble from Kamajii, for about five more minutes as Chihiro stayed seated and watched the Susuwatari work with eyes that were focused on something else. She was trying to organize her mind as she replayed everything that had happened previously in her head, and began to plan her next move while she still had her costume with her and was technically free to move about the bathhouse. She had just been on the verge of panicking when she remembered that all her comrades might be currently captured by the evil Tiko, when a door to the back slammed open, and Rin came bursting through, panting and sweating, cheeks flushed with fear.  
  
"Chihiro!" she got out in a loud, scratchy cry, staggering over to the girl and grabbing her roughly by the hand. "Where have you been!? We have to go!"  
  
"I'm sorry!" Chihiro was quick to squeak in her soprano. "But I was just walking down the hall with everyone when this important servant grabbed me and told me to watch a bath that-"  
  
"Tell me later, we have to leave NOW. Everyone who is left is waiting by the boats, and we would have escaped without you if I hadn't figured you would be here." Rin explained, firmly tugging Chihiro along as they both reached a back exit, Rin pausing at the small wooden door, illuminated and orange by the burning furnace, to turn back to Kamajii. He hadn't stopped his working yet, but the Susuwatari had all halted, and were staring wide eyed at Chihiro had Rin, questioningly.  
  
".Did you help her Kamajii?" Rin asked carefully, coldly. Chihiro looked up at her pretty friend with confusion. Why was she speaking in that tone to Kamajii? It wasn't her teasing admonitions from the days of old, when the two had worked together, but a distant and mean snap.  
  
"No, my granddaughter just found her way here after she escaped from a tight fix, I believe," Kamajii said casually, still not turning to properly address either female. A scowl that had made itself a home on Rin's face darkened, and she spun on her heal so rip open the door, growling.  
  
"Come on Chihiro, we best make haste. Who knows, Kamajii might have already told on us to his Lady Tiko," she hissed cruelly. Chihiro gasped. Kamajii was a traitor!?- giving her old friend one last glance before the door slammed shut, and she was dragged down a dark staircase, closing on the spider spirit and all his inquisitive workers.  
  
"R-Rin. I don't under-!"  
  
"Later," Rin called back to her friend, swiftly trotting down the stairs, eyes set on the next-door awaiting them at the bottom, but that, slightly sad, frown still on her face.  
  
The couple burst through the door, Chihiro quietly shuddering in the cool night air even though she was very protected by the dark robes she wore, Rin leading Chihiro down to the boats that awaited them at the edge of the jagged rocks. It seemed as though it had been a lifetime ago since Chihiro had been desperately scampering up these same rocks, even though it had been most likely two hours.  
  
'So much has changed,' Chihiro thought numbly as she was ushered back into her boat by the two enthusiastic twins, having replaced some of their rabid enthusiasm with bone rattling fear, sitting towards the back with Rin as they both picked up oars and began quickly paddling themselves to safety. The water made a soft splashing noise as they all pushed off the shore as a unit, everyone's masks still firmly in place even then, as if they were too petrified to remove them just yet.  
  
"The invisibility spells are in effect!" One of the twins reminded Rin helpfully, eyes darting from the boat and back up to the rapidly retreating Aburaya nervously. Chihiro dimly wondered what had happened to the twins to make them so scared. to make Rin so shaken.  
  
'Were they found by Tiko?' Chihiro suddenly did a quick head count, something telling her it was important she do so, heart momentarily freezing in her chest as she realized their little army was two short.  
  
".Where's Po?" Chihiro was afraid to ask.  
  
"He has been. kidnapped by Tiko's forces," Rin gritted out, her expression stony, but her tone pained. "He a well as Yo are lost to us, and kept with Yu-Baaba and the others now." Yo was one of the male sprits who had, in fact, been in Chihiro's group before she was separated from them. Chihiro halted her oar, quickly turning back to stair at the bright Aburaya, it suddenly seeming that much more sinister.  
  
'Po. oh God. he's really gone? But- but he and I were just becoming friends, and he saved me from cracking my head on the rocks before! He was- he was-!'  
  
"Keeping paddling," Rin ordered softly, her eyes fixed ahead towards the sanctuary of the covering forest, instead of at the bathhouse. Chihiro quickly resumed paddling, taking Rin's suggestion. Yes. She had to look ahead. Had to think of ways to make things right, instead of reminiscing on had bad they were. She had to think of a way to save Po and No-face and Baby Bou and all the others from Tiko's clutches. The girl had to focus on finding a cure for Kohaku and all of the other tainted spirits. And she could not cave in to the depression, or let her determination be dragged down by the hopelessness of it all.  
  
She couldn't succumb to Tiko as others had.  
  
* "So, we did accomplish some things on this mission," Rin said, smiling halfheartedly as she finished applying the disinfectant to the small gash across her arm she had received while trying to save her fellow worker Yo from the ruthless ghost men. A group of them had attacked her group half way through their search for a cure to the tainted spirit curse. Chihiro sat on Rin's couch, basking in the safety of Rin's home, and letting the icepack she was resting on effectively numb her back, as it was currently colored black and blue from all the times she had been tossed around and had landed painfully on it that night.  
  
'Although I suppose it's far better than being taken hostage like the others.' she acknowledged through the aching pain, hair back up in its ponytail. If it hurt now, how would her bruises feel in the morning?  
  
After everyone had made it through the oak tree and into the underground shanty-town of rebels, the solemn group had slowly dispersed back to their homes, able to avoid crowds of interested friends since they had all returned far earlier than expected. They were depressed and upset, feeling as though they had failed their mission miserably with the loss of two valuable comrades, and had gone home dragging their feet. Chihiro had watched them leave with a disheartened attitude as well: She hadn't even told any of them about their 'Master Kohaku' yet, figuring she should let Rin be the first to know. This knowledge, she knew, would make everyone feel ten times worse, since Kohaku was apparently a very influential person in this town.  
  
It didn't even occur once to Chihiro that the knowledge that the walls were going down around the Aburaya might bring cheer to some: The cost was far too high in her mind.  
  
And now she was back in Rin's small home as they duo tended to their minimal wounds, recounting the nights events, and Chihiro waiting until it was the appropriate time to inquire about Kamajii, or discuss Kohaku.  
  
"Like what?" Chihiro asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, first off, we know for sure now that Tiko is using a confining talisman to keep her prisoners," Rin said, getting out a length of bandage as she spoke. "The men in the other group saw it, since they personally encountered Tiko on their mission," she elucidated.  
  
"And they got away?" Chihiro asked in wonder, thinking she would have never been able to escape that penetrating stare of Tiko's had it not been for Kohaku.  
  
"Just barely, they DID loose Yo." Pain flashed across the young spirit's face now. "But. in any case, they saw that the talisman is a small metal orb."  
  
"Okay,"  
  
"This is good because now we can get working on a plan to free the people in that ball." Rin added, taping the bandage tight together, wincing slightly as it made her deep cut sting. She said nothing more as Chihiro continued to press the icepack to her lower back, eyes closed. Finally, the mortal had to ask.  
  
"Is Kamajii really a traitor?" Rin paused, as she was putting away all of her first aid material, lowering her head and appearing to think this question over.  
  
"Yes," she decided upon.  
  
"Oh." Chihiro murmured, still unable to believe the admittedly eccentric spirit was capable of being as evil as someone like Tiko. How could he help kill all of those innocent spirits?  
  
"Not to the point where he likes the idea of transforming people into tainted spirits." Rin was quick to assure Chihiro. "He's just. indifferent, maybe. He won't take the initiative to come stay with us in these refugee camps of sorts that we've created, choosing to stick with the bathhouse and be paid handsomely by Tiko who needs someone of his skill to work the boiler room."  
  
"But, non-action is just as bad as him wanting to help Tiko in a situation like this!" Chihiro spat.  
  
"I know," Rin agreed, sighing and slumping into a chair as well. "And that's why I can't forgive him." Chihiro sighed. She knew that Rin used to be friends with Kamajii. This must have been a real blow to her. Well, Chihiro knew better than to expect the expected at this point, and accepted the fact that Kamajii was not the spirit she once knew with a relative degree of calmness, and grim understanding. That was just the way it was. But speaking of harsh blows.  
  
"Rin," Chihiro croaked, staring at the window intensely, and refusing to meet the woman's gaze as she spoke. "I. I have to tell you what happened to me while I was separated from the group,"  
  
"Yes! You never got around to it, what- Chihiro?" Rin asked, cocking her head at the girl's pale, remorseful expression. ". Do I want to know what happened?" Rin questioned fearfully. Chihiro shook her head solemnly.  
  
"No. It's terrible," she admitted. "First. I was brought by a servant to one of the baths to guard a . customer there. I didn't know it at first, but the customer was Kohaku," Rin's eyes widened to the size of ping pong balls, and she looked as though she was going to inquire if Kohaku was actually IN the bath, so Chihiro hurried along, hoping to get this all out before Rin had time to interrupt, or else she feared she might not be able to finish the retelling.  
  
"I tried to get him out of the bath. but he told me he had-had struck a deal with Tiko, and that he was just fulfilling his part of the bargain. The deal was. the deal he had made that day he told me to go ahead with out him, and come here to see you. was that if he became a tainted spirit, then Tiko would raise the barriers confining the Aburaya workers to its property, and you would all be free to tell the world of her treachery. He agreed." She finished dully, already having told this story to herself one too many times. It was becoming torture to herself to repeat it constantly.  
  
"Damn it! That's so like him!" Rin screamed, slamming a fist onto the table so hard that Chihiro felt the reverberations from the couch.  
  
"He didn't have a choice. He would have killed himself if he'd said no, he would have thought it was selfish." Chihiro said in her friend's defense. A hand unconsciously strayed up to her lips at the word 'friend.' Could she call herself something more?.  
  
'I shouldn't be thinking about this now, I have other things to worry about,' Chihiro acknowledged.  
  
In truth, she still hadn't come to terms with the fact that Po was gone. She hadn't really known Yo, as sorry she was that he had been taken prisoner as well, but Po. had been so kind to her! The shock of having him be gone, kept in some magical prison was emotionally swamping, and unfathomable. Chihiro tried to understand it, but all the emotion she could draw up when she thought of all her friends' positions currently was pure rage.  
  
'My mood keeps changing,' Chihiro realized. 'One second I'm all gung- ho and ready to go to war, and the second something startling happens I'm back on square one and ready to curl up into a ball. I'm weak,' she decided. 'The only reason I even started out on all this was because Tenchi helped me realize that it was the right thing. But Tenchi's not here now, and It's hard to keep on track when all your friends are in such grave peril,'  
  
"I know, but I can't believe this! He's going to be a tainted spirit now? We're going to loose Kohaku? This is going to have a devastating effect on the community, on the council with all of the active rebels, on- !" Rin spun on her heal to stare at her small friend, coming to an abrupt halt as she realized the girl was sobbing silently into her hands. "-on you." She finished quietly. Wordlessly, the ex-bathhouse worker swooped down and captured Chihiro in a comforting embrace, rocking back and forth, a woeful expression of her own placed on her face.  
  
"Don't cry Chihiro, we'll fix everything. we'll make sure things are all right. don't worry." Rin murmured, like a mother to her child. Chihiro drew in a high pitched, shuddering gasp. It was just too much. She could be strong tomorrow, for the next meeting they would have when they would discuss exactly what happened on mission, as there was much more that transpired.. But for just then, with Rin, in her house (That was feeling more and more like home as the days passed.) in Rin's embrace. she would be weak. And vulnerable. And upset. She could be the all-knowing wunderkind Chihiro for the spirit community later. Just then. she had to mourn. She had lost so much.  
  
'What's happened to you Kohaku? Where are you now? I need to see you.'  
  
Chihiro clung tightly to Rin, trying to remember the embrace her river-God friend had given her just hours before, as she realized, if he stayed in the bathhouse, she might never be able to touch him again.  
  
*  
  
Author's Notes:  
  
I'm sorry again! But it had to be done. Don't worry; I won't keep Kohaku and Chihiro from each other this whole story, or even for the next few chapters, seeing as how that would be dreadfully boring. And about how it's all, you know, DEPRESSING right now, well that's just what I have to do in the beginning to give Chihiro some initiative to rise up and be this all powerful savior. But then afterwards most of the story will be dedicated to piecing everyone back together as best I can, and making them happy again. In any case, don't forget to review. THAT, above all, is what you should keep in mind. Heh, thanks for reading,  
  
Rio~ 


	5. Pollution

Hey all!  
  
I am SOOO sorry that this chapter took like, a month to come out. I honestly wasn't using all that month to sit around and think about this fic, and I want to thank everyone who waited patiently for me to update even though I'm an ass. Your reviews are so nice and complimenting, and talking about my story like a 'work of art' makes me smile! Even though I beg to differ.  
  
Okay, so one strong message I got from people this time was: Stop writing so much freaking detail and make the story interesting again. Hmm. okay, I'll try; I guess I was just focusing too hard on the drama and suspense last time around. Although, remember, this is my writing style so it's not as though things are going to change overly much in that department, but I hope you all don't just skip over the descriptions too much anyway. I mean, that's the hard part! Dialogue is easy, but describing the spirit world takes thought.  
  
There will be more Chihiro and Kohaku fluff to those who care (A.K.A everyone. Except for one atypical reviewer who said the story didn't need any fluff. but. I thought it went well.) don't worry, because I love it too. but no lemons. I don't do lemons. First off I'm too young to write them anyway, and secondly I can't ever see that fitting in with this story. Chihiro's fourteen, she's in the middle of a war and Kohaku would definitely wait until he and Chihiro were married or had performed some other spirit. custom. thing, before they did anything. Anyway, that's that, but whatever - I don't think too many of you were really hoping for a sex scene anyway.  
  
Also, to that one reviewer who mentioned it. I don't think it's actually possible to report an author for being late with updating. But hey, whatever, you can try. (Actually. don't. God, don't.)  
  
So, please enjoy my story, acknowledge the fact that I don't own Spirited Away. and that's all!  
  
*  
  
Spirited Back  
  
By Rio Grande  
  
Chapter Five: Pollution  
  
*  
  
"She looks so tired."  
  
"Do you think she'll want to go to Yumei falls?"  
  
"Oh, I want to take her to-!"  
  
"Shhh, we'll wake her up!"  
  
"It's all right! Rin said-!"  
  
"Shhh!"  
  
"But Tei!"  
  
"SHHH!"  
  
Chihiro opened her eyes slowly, feeling as though her face had been stretched out like a newly made canvas coated in sticky salt water, thanks to all of the tears she had cried and forgotten to wash away last night. There was a rancid taste in the back of her throat she feared was vomit as she tried to sit up and scrub at her face. She was further pulled into the world of the living by the many squeaky little voices dancing around her head.  
  
"Look! Look she's waking!"  
  
"See, you woke her up!"  
  
"Did not! It's late anyway - I bet she would have woken up on her own."  
  
Chihiro slowly slid her eyes open, blinking into the dimly lit room, and finding it disorienting to wake up naturally in the evening. She waited for her vision to clear before she tipped her head to the side to see just who it was making all the noise near her bed.  
  
".Hello."  
  
"Hi!"  
  
"I-it's nice to see you again!" Three little Yuna girls stuttered, blushing cutely and staring at their hands when they noticed their idol's gaze rest upon them. It took Chihiro a while for everything to process as she continued to silently stare at the three diminutive spirits, before realizing that before her was Kima, and two of her friends who had been there at the meeting before she went to the bathhouse, last night.  
  
"Where's Rin?" Chihiro croaked, drawing her knees up while bracing her hands on her cot and trying to get to her feet. This task was a lot more difficult to pull off then one would imagine. She was just too exhausted.  
  
"U-um, she told us to tell you that she went to a meeting and doesn't want you to come!" Kima quickly explained, glancing up at Chihiro nervously.  
  
"Doesn't want me to come? Why?" Chihiro asked quietly, not really expecting these three young girls to have the answer, but curious nonetheless. What was Rin doing?  
  
"She said she wanted you to rest. and have fun," one of the other girls chirped happily. "We're supposed to play with you!"  
  
"Play with me?" Chihiro repeated, shaking her head. Call her crazy, but after all that had happened, Chihiro felt as though it would be almost offensive to have a good time when there were people trapped with Tiko at the bathhouse. Alone. scared. hurt. Chihiro shuddered unconsciously and got to her feet, deciding that, above all, she needed a bath. Her entire body was covered in a very take a bath." she mentioned distantly as she traveled over to the washroom, dazed. The girls stared after her, looking vaguely worried and ringing their hands.  
  
Rin HAD told them to play with Chihiro, and had been very specific about the part how the girl from the mortal world was to have only a very good time that day, making sure the girls understood they weren't to bring up anything about how the mission went last night. The job had seemed easy at first to the three, exuberant and very young Yuna. but now the ordinarily simple task looked daunting as it dawned on Kima and her friends just how depressed Chihiro truly was. Her entire attitude was dark and halfhearted, and her brown eyes empty of the sparkle they had remembered seeing on her when she had started out to the bathhouse, earlier. She had been so gung ho and eager to help out her friends when she had started out, and now.  
  
No one knew yet what exactly had happened at the Aburaya, thus the meeting, but it was looking as though things had gone awry at some point - the fact that they were missing two members of their merry crew when they returned last night, shaking and crying, being enough proof of that. And master Kohaku had yet to return!.  
  
Chihiro sighed as she scrubbed her body deftly while staring at the wall, submerged in cold water, within the confines of the washroom. Rin's bathroom was small, and decorated sparsely since it had been built by rebels trying to throw together something akin to shelter, but it had all of the essentials for cleaning the layers of dirt out of Chihiro's hair. She had been too lazy to actually warm up the water provided, so Chihiro found herself shivering and rushing out of the bath as soon as she had efficiently cleansed herself.  
  
While wrapping a towel around her thin form, Chihiro stared at the tub with a small frown. It really looked nothing like it, the small, iron tub stuffed in the cramped, humble bathroom, but. Chihiro couldn't help but be reminded of Kohaku's bath while staring at Rin's tub. She swallowed painfully, shaking fingers reaching for the doorknob behind her as she tried to rip her gaze away from the ghost memory that entranced her so, stumbling out into the slightly warmer hall of Rin's home. Rubbing her face and shaking her head, Chihiro turned around, abruptly coming face to face (or thigh to face.) with Kima and her friends, who had been waiting dutifully outside of the bathroom door the entire time.  
  
Chihiro stifled an accepting sigh, realizing that she was going to have to stay with these girls all day if it was what Rin wished, or what they had been ordered to do, plastering on an accepting smile just for the scared looking Yuna.  
  
"Hey," Chihiro said, her throat still scratchy.  
  
"Hello," the girls repeated once more, in unison.  
  
"So. We were supposed to play together.?"  
  
*  
  
"This way!"  
  
"Over here!"  
  
"It's the best over here!"  
  
But a mere half out later, Chihiro found herself being dragged down the streets of the subversive rebel town, illuminated by hanging lamps strung up above her, and glittering with life and character. The girls seemed to know their current home like the back of their tiny hands, and were leading the lost fourteen year old around it quite well. Chihiro's hair was tied back in a dark, wet braid, and she had just barely had time to dress in a demure, dark purple robe before being dragged out into the night. Kima and her friends seemed simply too exited at the chance to teach Chihiro about their world, and show her a good time. Chihiro had to admit. their obvious naivety and gay innocence was having a wonderful effect on her bone chilling misery.  
  
Kima's two friends were named Tei and Mia. Tei was the tallest, dark hair going down her back and a pink kimono making it easy to tell her apart from the others. Mia was very small with lighter hair, and large inquisitive gray eyes. She seemed rather shy, unlike Kima who considered herself a bit of an expert when it came to Chihiro now - considering she had met her TWICE before, and was showing no hesitance in taking Chihiro by the hand and explaining to her all there was to know about a spirit market. Tei and Mia followed along behind, shooting out helpful comments when needed. Chihiro found it endearing, not used to being the older person in situations like these.  
  
"Wooww. look at those kimonos!" Chihiro commented, stopping in front of one of the many stands lining the streets, staring at the beautiful kimonos exhibited for her. They came in many deep, yet delicate colors, the embroidered designs on them stunning, and reminding her of more ancient robes she had seen only in books. These would be priceless back home.  
  
"We used to have these made all the time at the Aburaya as a hobby for when things got too boring!" Kima explained casually, finding the kimonos to be nothing special. "But. now that things aren't so boring, there aren't many left," she admitted. The woman behind the stand smiled broadly at Chihiro, offering for her to come closer and take a better look, but Chihiro still had no money fit to pay spirits with, so she hurried along her way.  
  
The market was an impressive maze of tents and merchandise, a melee of eager customers spending their money and inspecting the quality of goods . however even Chihiro noticed how everything seemed slightly quieter today, people a bit more solemn than usual as they waited for news from the meeting to come back, and hear how everything went during the big invasion last night. Chihiro mentally winced as she realized things would probably be even darker around this place by tomorrow, knowing perfectly well that no one was going to be pleased by the news they got back from the rebel leaders.  
  
"The market was started to trade supplies between rebels so that we could build new homes, in the beginning," Tei explained in a surprisingly mature tone. "However, now it's more for fun, so that people don't just sit home all day, plotting and worrying about the war,"  
  
"I see," Chihiro commented, glancing down at Tei and acknowledging that her height probably accounted to the fact that she was older than Kima and Mia.  
  
The quartet continued to walk around the market place, Chihiro examining the merchandise with much interest, remembering many items from when she had first gotten a brief glimpse of the trading area with Rin, upon arriving in the underground sanctuary. However it had only been a brief visit, and Chihiro was still a little confused about a number of things in this metropolis of spirit goods.  
  
"Kima, how come people are selling so much dirt and water?" Chihiro asked, wrinkling her nose and stopping in front of one stand that proffered said products. She had seen it before, and it still confused her; why did the spirit world need to sell fresh water and dirt when they lived in such a lush area? Kima only waited a beat before answering simply:  
  
"Pollution."  
  
Chihiro frowned and looked down at the Yuna dubiously.  
  
"What sort of pollution? You don't have any factories around here. no cars, no garbage dumps - you don't even have any electricity, so how can pollution be a problem?" the girl questioned. Once again Tei replied in a very knowledgeable tone.  
  
"It started recently. when Tiko started to take over, really," the young spirit said, reflectively. "Our ponds and lakes started to loose plant life, and soon entire bodies of water were crystal clear so that you could see straight down to the bottom,"  
  
"But. isn't that a good thing?" Chihiro pointed out, ready to admit she knew very little about the environment, but deciding she rather liked her ponds free of algae and other, icky pond scummy type things.  
  
"No, it's not!" Mia quickly piped up in her little squeak, as if this should be quite obvious, especially to someone of Chihiro's status in the spirit world.  
  
"It means all of the plant life in the water has been killed. And once the plants start dying, the animal life starts going too. You know once this happens that the water isn't healthy enough for drinking or bathing in," Tei clarified, as Mia nodded helpfully.  
  
"I see," Chihiro said, her forehead creasing into frown lines as she thought over the gravity of this situation. "So you're having trouble getting freshwater then? What about the bathhouse? What water do they use?"  
  
"They're using up what freshwater we have!" Tei admitted, the hate obvious in her voice. "People are starting to sell fresh water they've collected at very high prices, since it's becoming such a precious commodity."  
  
"It wouldn't be such a problem, but we can't leave the bathhouse property in search of better water, so we're stuck with what we've got," Kima added, sighing.  
  
"And the dirt?" Chihiro asked, almost afraid to know as she started to continue walking, the Yuna quickly following, eager to explain their grave situation to Chihiro, who would surely be able to help out with this problem in the end. Chihiro noticed the undying trust in the girls' eyes, and mentally sighed. What did these people want from her? How was she supposed to save the entire spirit world from being contaminated? She felt as though everyone expected her to be some wonderful savior, when she was just a girl with a lot of luck. These people were having problems she couldn't even begin to help out with.  
  
"Tiko's fault as well," Kima stated firmly. "Since the water is so terrible. my mother says it's hurting the rain, too. Now, the soil isn't fit for growing plants, and since we grow most of our food down here, it's important to have fresh soil,"  
  
"You haven't noticed it because you came in through the lake to get to the Aburaya, but the area around the bathhouse is now terribly polluted with garbage and trash Tiko is letting her people litter. It's disgusting," Tei said firmly. "We have to get out of this area, or soon we won't be able to survive,"  
  
"She's raised the pH levels in the soil." Chihiro acknowledged with a sigh, having learned that in biology, and knowing enough about the atmosphere to realize that Tiko had done something terrible to the spirit world. She had created acid rain. How, Chihiro didn't want to know, but how could the woman bring the things Earth suffered from so, to this innocent land? It wasn't fair. They weren't doing anything wrong.  
  
"I hate this," Chihiro groaned, clenching her fists. The three Yuna exchanged worried glances, immediately noticing Chihiro's disheartened attitude. Rin had said to cheer the prodigy girl up, cheer her up! Instantaneously they regretted burdening poor Chihiro with all of the Aburaya's problems.  
  
"Hey! Let's go to Yumei falls!" Kima all but shrieked happily, latching onto Chihiro and staring up giddily into her eyes.  
  
"What?" the girl replied numbly, still trying to figure out what Tiko's angle was.  
  
"Ohhh! Lets!" Mia chirped happily, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet.  
  
"What is it?" Chihiro asked.  
  
"Oh it's great! It's this big waterfall with a nice pool to swim in and the water isn't too dirty and it's not too cold and it's sooo fun!" Kima burst out all at once, thrilled that Chihiro was showing some interest; If Yumei falls didn't cheer the girl up, Kima didn't know WHAT would.  
  
"It sounds nice," Chihiro admitted, glancing over all of the girl's expectant faces. Hey, what was the harm? It was true, she had just been burdened with yet another thing to worry about for this war between the good people of the bathhouse and the terrifying witch who had hurt them. but, on the other hand, Rin HAD instructed she have only fun that day, so.  
  
"All right!!!" the spirits cheered, triumphantly.  
  
*  
  
Yumei Falls WAS beautiful. A collection of sparkling waterfalls that bled off glittering rocks covered in bright green moss, and collected into an almost luminous blue pool, giving everything an ethereal look, made up Yumei. Chihiro was imeediatly taken with it. The water was cold and pure, just as Kima had said it would be, looking far from contaminated, as the girls had told her most bodies of water were now. But, who knew how long it would be before the acid rain reached this spot too? Chihiro had a feeling it was untouched because it was far from the rebel town, through a series of tunnels that led to a spot a little above ground with trees, where you were able to see the sky. It was actually placed just about as far away as you could get from the Aburaya, and one of the only places safe for rebels to go when they wanted a breath of fresh air, away from the underground town.  
  
The little Yuna, still in their robes, shrieked happily and raced up the rocks to get the top of smaller falls, throwing themselves off the foaming edges and into the deep pool below. Apparently they had come to this place many times before, and knew all of the highest waterfalls to slide down, instructing Chihiro on how to best slither around the stones so as not to bruise her hips when going down the falls. Chihiro screamed with fright as she made a vertical plummet into the water, swimming up the surface only to find Kima, Mia and Tei laughing at her for being scared. Chihiro soon found herself laughing with them; that hadn't been so bad! In fact. it had been fun. Really fun.  
  
'I should thank Rin for letting me do this. It's making me feel. rejuvenated. I just needed some time to recuperate before thinking about all of the dark stuff out there, and the meeting would have just made me miserable.' Chihiro decided, pulling herself up onto shore and staring up at the dark sky, partially blocked by a canopy of trees swaying in the night wind. 'But. I wonder how Rin herself is doing,' The girl shuddered lightly as she realized it was warmer swimming in the water than drying off in the grass, goose bumps forming all over her arms.  
  
"Hey, Chihiro!" Kima cried from the water, splashing around with Mia. "We're going to play hide and seek! You wanna play too?" Chihiro smiled broadly.  
  
"Sure!" the girl replied, eagerly diving back into the water and swimming over to the Yuna.  
  
"Okay, Sei is gonna count first!" Mia explained, already swimming backwards and keeping an eye out for a good hiding spot behind some of the larger rocks.  
  
"Okay. go!" Sei instructed, hiding her eyes and treading water as she counted. All three girls quickly splashed off, Mia and Kima swimming as quietly as they could behind a hefty boulder near one of the largest falls, while Chihiro took a different approach, trying to find somewhere really clever to hide. She dove underwater, searching around for a good location as quickly as she could. She frowned as she spotted something near a waterfall. It appeared to be the opening of a cave. Briefly coming up for breath, she inspected what it looked from above the water, finding it to be just rocks, the secret entrance only visible when you were submerged.  
  
Her adventurous nature getting the better of her, Chihiro spared the still counting Tei one glance before diving under and entering the cave entrance.  
  
While this situation might frighten others, being in the spirit world where everyone saw her as a hero, liberated Chihiro, and she loved to swim, so she felt no fear as everything got dark around her. She continued to propel herself forward with her arms, keeping her eyes out for anything interesting. The cave seemed to go on for a while, and Chihiro was considering turning back so she could get some air, before suddenly the water changed from a murky darkness to a bright, crystal hue. There must be sky above her again! Smiling, Chihiro swam up until she reached the surface, and indeed found herself to be outside once more, the moon's beams making everything take on a silver light.  
  
"Wow." Chihiro breathed, the three little Yuna forgotten as she inspected her surroundings. She had apparently come out into another cave. the one she had just swam through merely an entrance to this larger, far more impressive one. Looking up, Chihiro found the moon to be winking at her through a hole in the ceiling that rose up some many feet above her. Cold stone surrounded the girl, and everything was totally silent in the glowing cavern except for the sound of water lapping at the edges of the underground pool. Chihiro quickly got out of the water, marvel apparent on her features as she continued to investigate this place she had found.  
  
"I wonder if anyone knows about this place," she wondered aloud. It looked to be uninhabited, and it made Chihiro feel that much more excited over the fact that she might be the first person to ever step foot in this place. She giggled in spite of herself and forged ahead, wanting to know how far this cave went.  
  
She had only traveled a short distance, her wet robes making her shiver slightly, when she heard it. a low growl. She froze, eyes wide. Something was down there, in this cave. And it was growling. This was rarely a good sign. Chihiro bit her lip and wondered if she should turn back. when she realized that the growl was getting louder, and closer. fast. It echoed off the walls and made Chihiro take an unconscious step backwards as she heard it.  
  
"Uh oh." she mentioned distantly. The girl stared, transfixed, almost physically unable to move as the growl got so loud she knew that whatever was making the horrid sound was almost upon her.  
  
And suddenly it was.  
  
Out of the dark shadows of the cave came a bounding monster, growling loudly and frightening Chihiro so much she screeched piercingly, wondering why she hadn't just run away when she had the chance.  
  
Chihiro had no idea what the monster really was. It was about three heads taller than she was, and didn't necessarily have one definite form. It was large and goopy, its entire form made out of a dark semi-solid substance that oozed and made disgusting squishing sounds as it moved. The body changed shape sporadically as Chihiro watched it move with some degree of horror, and its mouth was a gaping hole that made terrible noises, with no nose to speak of. However it had eyes, large soulless ones that made Chihiro whimper, since when she looked into them she saw something that made her quiver. Pain. Suffering and anguish and hatred. The monster was eternally frustrated, and miserable at the same time. It killed because it was supposed to, and didn't really understand why. This thought made Chihiro notably sad, and she was suddenly quite at a loss with what to do in this situation. Could she protect herself from a demon like this? Would it even try to attack her?  
  
The answer to that question was apparently, yes, as the thing made a mad swipe at her with one gooey arm, slamming it into the ground from where Chihiro had been before she leaped frantically to the side. There was a prominent dent in the stone ground now, and it made Chihiro frightened. This thing could really do her some harm, and it would probably be in her best interests to get away from it.  
  
She immediately began to sprint back in the direction of the underwater passage, heart beating madly in her chest. before she stopped abruptly, still hearing the raging monster slowly slinking its way up to her, growling and crying louder than ever. She couldn't lead this thing to the girls! She had to get it away from them! Or at least get rid of it. Frowning with determination, she turned to face the deformation once more, hands clenched. She was Chihiro who had liberated the people of the bathhouse when she was ten! She could do this!  
  
Experimentally, she picked up a rock and chucked it at the monster, just to see what would happen. She mentally groaned as the rock simply bounced of the demon's odd body, and skidded back at her, landing near her feet. Perfect. What was she supposed to do then? The monster leaped at her again, somewhat slowed down by the fact that it was made out of a Jell-O like substance, giving the stunned Chihiro time enough to get out of the way, and then start running in the opposite direction of the girls, hearing the monster begin to give chase once more. What was she supposed to do?  
  
Luckily, the cave seemed to be pretty large, so she wasn't going to run into any dead ends soon, however it was fairly steep and going uphill, and the monster didn't seem to be getting tired like she did. Not to mention it was gaining on her. Chihiro grit her teeth and tried to move faster, but she was already panting heavily and her knees were shaking from fear.  
  
The girl let out a strangled cry when the monster slammed one of its gluttonous arms into the ground, shaking the cave floor and making Chihiro trip over her own feet. She cried out in fear and just saved herself from breaking her nose by bracing herself on her hands when she collapsed. Shaking with trepidation, she turned around to see what the monster's position was now.  
  
"AH!" she cried as she found it to be very close to her, looming ominously over her form, and looking ready to pounce. She squeezed her eyes shut and prepared herself from the blow she knew would soon be delivered to her. possibly killing her. when someone cried out in the distance.  
  
"CHIHIRO! Don't let it touch you!"  
  
"Hu?" Chihiro asked, head craning around as she realized that the voice calling out to her sounded quite familiar. A shadowed form leaped out from behind the girl, and nearly flew over to the monster. Chihiro caught sight of a flash of steel, and realized there was a sword in the new person's hands.  
  
"Hya!" they screamed, slashing the sword across the monster's neck - and slicing its head of with one clean swipe. Chihiro gasped in surprise, eyes wide, as the monster's own head slid off its shoulders with a nauseating wet sound, and plopped onto the floor. There was one last, fatal moan, and then the body too, toppled to the ground, where it lay for a brief moment, before beginning to bubble noisily. Chihiro got to her feet quickly and watched with morbid fascination as the body shortly after reverted to pure liquid, and then evaporated into nothingness. She let out a breath of relief. It was gone.  
  
"We should get out of here," At the sound of that voice, Chihiro's attention was swiftly brought back to her savior.  
  
"Oh! Thank you for saving me-" Chihiro's breath caught in her throat as her hero turned around to face her. That person, casually sheathing their sword on the belt around their waist, was.  
  
"Kohaku!"  
  
Not wasting a moment, the overjoyed Chihiro threw herself onto the still taller boy, embracing him and crying out happily. "You came back!"  
  
It seemed like a dream - it was impossible! He had really returned! She felt like crying and laughing and shouting all at the same time, and took a moment to marvel over her friend who was always there for her. Whenever things got tough, Kohaku was there. How did he do that?  
  
"Of course I did," he said simply, hugging her back briefly. "You're not injured, are you?" he added, briefly looking her over for visible wounds.  
  
"No, I'm fine but - God I'm so glad you're here!" she gushed, distantly realizing this was the third time she had been reunited with her friend since her arrival to this world. "I was so worried about you. I ." she hesitated, remembering his fate, and immediately getting a guarded look in her eyes. "I."  
  
"Sh." Kohaku said simply, at once recognizing the reason for Chihiro's sudden change in attitude, and looking her straight in the eyes. "We shouldn't worry about such things now. Beside, we've just discovered something more important."  
  
"We. have?" Chihiro asked, confused, but glad she had something to get her mind off Tiko and other disturbing variables in her life.  
  
"Yes. Tiko and her tainted spirits are getting closer to finding the rebel base, if they've gotten this close to us. No tainted spirit has ever gotten this far along the way to figuring out where the bathhouse workers are staying. We have to warn everyone," he said in his liquid smooth tone.  
  
"That was a tainted spirit?!" Chihiro gasped, remembering the disgusting demon. So, that had been her first encounter with a spirit under the effects of Tiko's poison. she remembered the pained look in the demon's eyes and winced. Would that be Kohaku one day? She closed her eyes and concentrated on his words, taking his advice and trying not to dwell on things that couldn't be helped just then. She had to focus on the war. She had to help. Winning the war and destroying Tiko would inevitably help save Kohaku in the end, and she HAD to keep that in mind whenever things looked bad.  
  
"Yes. And now we should get back to Rin and inform her of this news. I'm sure she'll be eager to hear from me, in any case. Do you know where she is?" he asked, looking down at the girl still in his arms. His eyes softened as he realized how distressed she looked. And how much he loved her for caring.  
  
"Well, there was a meeting today, but she might be out of it by now." The girl admitted. "But. but Kohaku how did you get away from Tiko!?" She had to know. "What happened after you. threw me out the window," Kohaku got a vaguely embarrassed look on his face as he remembered hurling Chihiro out the window, ending their latest encounter.  
  
"I'm. very sorry about that," he said sheepishly. Chihiro shook her head.  
  
"No, you did it to save me," she quickly assured him. Kohaku smiled kindly at her, glad she understood.  
  
"Yes... But, there was no fight with Tiko. I already taken her poison, so. she had nothing to fear of me," he admitted softly. "She even let me leave, knowing my fate was sealed, on the condition that I cause no more havoc." Chihiro looked down, averting her angry gaze.  
  
"I hate that woman," she said simply. Kohaku didn't hesitate.  
  
"Me too." They shared a quick trade of rye smiles, but in the end Chihiro's lips started quivering, and she buried her head in his chest, doing everything in an effort to stop crying. Kohaku deserved to have a strong friend.  
  
"I-It makes me so m-mad." she admitted, her throat closing up painfully against her will.  
  
"I know," he agreed, his voice soothing her nerves, and getting her to come down, layer by layer. Only Kohaku could do this to her, get her to calm down so completely she felt as though she could just melt into his arms and never worry about anything ever again. He made her feel protected. "But. In the end, if we have enough heart, and someone to defend. it'll make us into a stronger person, won't it?" he said quietly.  
  
"Yes, I-." Chihiro stopped, eyes wide, she wrenched herself away from Kohaku to look up into his twinkling, ocean green eyes. 'A stronger person'. 'Someone to protect'. But that sounded like.  
  
"Come on," Kohaku said offhandedly. "We should get back to the town, it's not safe outside, even this far away from the Aburaya, anymore. How did you get here, anyway?"  
  
". I swam." Chihiro said simply, quickly regaining her wits and jogging after her friend, pushing any more alarming thoughts to the back of her mind for later inspection.  
  
"Swam?"  
  
"Yes, look there's a pool up ahead!"  
  
"Right." Chihiro giggled lightly as she slipped into the water, still warm on her skin, watching as Kohaku gracefully dived in as well. She watched him get a good look around underwater before coming back up.  
  
"You came in through the underwater passage down there, then?"  
  
"Yeah," Chihiro confirmed.  
  
"Any particular reason why?" he wanted to know.  
  
"Well, I was playing hide and seek with some little Yuna."  
  
"Hm," he replied, raising any eyebrow. Chihiro giggled, and together they both took a big breath of air, before diving under and swimming through the smaller cave, Chihiro in the lead, mentally smiling. He was back! Kohaku was back!.  
  
*  
  
"Chihiro!!" the Yuna shrieked, as their new friend burst up to the surface of the Yumei falls pool, gasping for breath.  
  
"Where were you!? We were so worried!!" Kima cried, dancing nervously around the edge of the pool, looking quite anxious indeed. Chihiro smiled apologetically, realizing she had probably scared the girls half to death. What would they tell Rin if she had never come back?  
  
Just then, a second form came to the surface, looking hardly winded or in need of oxygen, casually glancing around at his surroundings with little surprise.  
  
"Yumei falls," he commented, a small smile flitting across his face.  
  
"MASTER KOHAKU!?" all three Yuna cried simultaneously. Everyone in the rebel base knew of Kohaku's disturbing disappearance, and it had been weighing heavy on all their minds for some days. Even Kima and her friends'. "Where did you come from?!"  
  
"Chihiro brought me back," Kohaku decided upon saying simply. Chihiro sighed and pulled herself out of the water, dripping, knowing what was coming.  
  
"Chihiro. you're so wonderful!"  
  
"How did you do it?!"  
  
"I knew you would bring Master Kohaku back to us all along!"  
  
Chihiro shot Kohaku a bland look, of which he returned with a little quirking of his lips, before turning her attention back to the girls. "Oh, it was hardly any trouble." she said, sighing again. "He actually just found me, is more like it, really." Chihiro realized it would probably be best to leave the part about the tainted spirit out of her story, finding no need to worry these children. The fact that the tainted spirits were getting closer to the rebel's underground home was probably not something they wanted to hear.  
  
"We should head back," Kohaku said simply, having also lifted himself back onto dry land, his eyes going over to the trail that would lead the group back underground.  
  
"Okay," Chihiro agreed, squeezing the liquid out of her braid as she spoke.  
  
And so they started off, the three Yuna regarding two of the most respected people in the rebel town with something very akin to reverence.  
  
*  
  
Chihiro and Kohaku dropped Kima, Mia and Sei off at Mia's house, the other two explaining they knew their way back from that point. Chihiro had no misconceptions that they didn't, having first hand knowledge that their familiarity with the base was vast, and waved them off, with a promise to see them all soon. This announcement made every girl squeal with barely contained joy.  
  
The mortal girl and the dragon, river god gone boy made the rest of the trip to Rin's humble abode in relative silence, Chihiro so completely thrilled to have him near her she could hardly form words, while was Kohaku lost in deep thought about the rebel's position in the war from here. He hadn't told Chihiro, but he had some bad news to drop.  
  
They reached Rin's house shortly, Chihiro quickly traveling down the steps, thankful that Rin had left the door unlocked.  
  
"Rin!" Chihiro cried, throwing open the door and stumbling into the house, eyes darting around the living room. She spotted her older friend sprawled out on the couch, a picture of exhaustion from the lively meeting no doubt, one hand thrown up over her face.  
  
"Chihiro.?" she mumbled tiredly, rolling over on her side and swatting away Chihiro's hand when she tried to rouse the rebel leader. Chihiro sighed with frustration, and Kohaku looked mildly amused behind her.  
  
"Rin, wake up! I have something to show you! You'll like it!" Chihiro tried, shaking her friend gently, understanding that she deserved to rest after a hard day of explaining to a hundred plus people that they had practically failed in the terribly important mission they had been attempting to pull off for many months and, in addition had lost three important comrades. but decided that she seeing Kohaku just then was more important.  
  
"Chihiro, maybe we should leave her alone." Kohaku voiced hesitantly.  
  
"Kohaku!?" Rin cried, shooting straight up and pushing Chihiro to the floor. "You're back!!" she cried, throwing herself at the 'young' man. "Don't you ever, ever do anything like that again, you idiot! How did you get here!?"  
  
"I flew." he explained, as Chihiro picked herself up off the floor, frowning.  
  
"That's not what I meant and you know it! How did you get away from Tiko?" Rin pressed, eyes flashing. Kohaku gave off a small smile, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to get anything past his Yuna friend.  
  
"She let me go, after making me promise I wouldn't cause much trouble for her from now until I transformed," he said. Rin's exuberant manner dimmed somewhat at his words, when she remembered just what Kohaku was going to be transformed into, Chihiro's story coming back to her with a vengeance.  
  
"Oh. Kohaku," she said, shaking her head.  
  
"I sensed a tainted spirit very close to the rear entrance of the rebel base on my way back, and came down to investigate. That's where I found Chihiro." Kohaku continued. Rin's attention was almost immediately transferred over to the smaller girl.  
  
"A tainted spirit! God are you okay Chihiro?" Rin asked, going a bit mother hen on Chihiro as she quickly scanned the girl's form for any injuries. Finding none, she listened to Chihiro's explanation intently.  
  
"No, I'm fine. I might not have been, but Kohaku saved me before there could be any damage done." Chihiro said, her eyes straying down to the medium sized blade still at Kohaku's waist.  
  
"Oh, God. you could have really been hurt. what were you doing at the edge of the base's property anyway?" Rin wanted to know. "And with the girls?"  
  
"We were at Yumei falls. and I was in a cave near it," Chihiro explicated.  
  
"No - they're getting as close as Yumei falls?" Rin gasped, traveling back over to the couch and collapsing onto it, her eyes getting a distant look. "This isn't good. We'll have to close the falls off then. maybe even confine everyone to only the underground portion of the base."  
  
"Um - do we have to get so serious about it?" Chihiro wanted to know as she sat on a chair opposite Rin, Kohaku following suit. The girl couldn't imagine being stuck below ground for the duration of her stay. It would be terrible!  
  
"We might have to Chihiro, there are a lot of defenseless Yuna and bathhouse workers out there who could get seriously hurt," she reminded the girl. "Just think what could have happened to you if Kohaku hadn't come to your rescue," Chihiro sighed but nodded in agreement, looking at her hands folded in her still damp lap.  
  
"Rin, I need to tell you about the agreement with Tiko," Kohaku said grimly, as soon as it as apparent Chihiro had nothing more to say.  
  
"Oh, don't worry. Chihiro already told me everything." Rin said somberly.  
  
"No, but. there's more," Kohaku said, as Chihiro's head snapped around to look at him, taken a back. But he hadn't said anything. "It's about the barriers around the Aburaya being raised."  
  
"What about it?" Rin asked, fearfully. Kohaku captured the complete attention of both females as they waited for what he was going to say next with baited breath. Could things get ANY worse?.  
  
"She's only going to raise the barriers when I have almost completed my transformation into a tainted spirit. That should be about a month from now." Apparently so.  
  
"Oh - GOD." Rin groaned, holding her head in her hands. "But you are the best fighter we've got Kohaku, and the fastest. How are a bunch of bathhouse workers supposed to get the attention of the spirit world without our river god to help? We were depending on having you with us when I told everyone about your situation at the meeting. We just assumed the barriers would be up by now." Kohaku looked vaguely apologetic, and Chihiro was biting her lip furiously.  
  
Rin was right, who in the spirit world WOULD listen to the ex-Aburaya workers when they were already plunged into a fearful war of their own against an unidentified enemy. Who would believe that the bathhouse owner Tiko was responsible for the deaths of millions of spirits?  
  
'Was this Tiko's plan all along?' Chihiro wondered despondently. 'Did she know that without Kohaku to help us anyway, it would be very hard to get our word out there until it was too late? Already it would hardly matter, since Tiko has such an army if people were to find out she could probably put up a good fight, but this.' Chihiro shook her head wretchedly. This was terrible.  
  
"She promised she would raise the barriers before I had totally transformed, perhaps a few days before the potion has taken full affect, so that I could see with my own eyes that she has kept her promise," Kohaku continued.  
  
"What state will you be in by then?" Rin asked quickly, forgetting the stages of the transformation.  
  
"Almost completely gone," Kohaku admitted. "This first week I will feel nothing to show that I am changing. Only the second week will some small symptoms begin to show through. By the third week it will be apparent I am going, and the third is when I really will begin to cross over,"  
  
"So she's really going to wait till the bitter end." Rin acknowledged grimly. "Damn her,"  
  
"How do you know she'll stay true to her word?" Chihiro wanted to know, hands clenched.  
  
"She has no reason not to. We made a deal, and she could defend herself from most spirits outside the property who attacked her at this point, since her plans have been going on for so long, and she has enough monsters and guards to defend her. She has more of an army than either of you realize. However. it will free the rebels. And they will be able to finally join up with the rest of the spirit world. If we didn't leave this place soon, our supplies and natural resources would run dry, anyway. with Tiko's pollution helping it along, especially." Chihiro nodded knowledgably, now that she knew exactly what sort of pollution Tiko was raining down on the spirit world. She would have to talk to Rin about it more at a later date, though. She had a feeling there was more to it then Kima and her friends knew. "Especially now with her monsters getting so close to finding us. Saving everyone is enough of a triumph for me, anyway." Kohaku confided in the two women. Chihiro's eyes softened at his words, and she took his hand, resting her head on his shoulder, not so sure if she was comforting him with this action, or herself.  
  
"Oh Kohaku," Rin said, shaking her head. "You were always so noble. So stupid," she laughed. "Everyone was really distressed at the meeting when they heard your fate."  
  
"They all know now?" Kohaku looked vaguely surprised that all of the rebels were aware of what he would transform into in a month's time.  
  
"Well, yes, I had to tell them. You're such a leader around here, they deserved to know what happened to their most trusted commander," Rin pointed out wryly. These words only made Kohaku look pained though, so Rin quickly changed the subject.  
  
"Anyway. you should come to the next meeting, they'll all be really happy to see you. You too Chihiro! Everyone missed you, and wanted to make sure you were okay!" Rin added. Chihiro nodded; still incredibly relieved she had gotten to miss the last meeting, as it had done wonders for her. She remembered how depressed she had been earlier, compared to her lighthearted state of mind now. Especially with Kohaku near, she felt revitalized.  
  
"Thank you for not letting me go to the meeting today, Rin." Chihiro said softly. Rin beamed at the girl.  
  
"I knew it would only make you more upset, after seeing your reaction last night. But. you both look very tired. Perhaps its time we all turned in. The sun will be rising soon." the woman pointed out, gaze turning to stare out the window, where you could admittedly see no real sky, except for the occasional man made breaks in the ceiling of the underground base, where moonlight flitted in.  
  
"I agree," Kohaku said, standing up. "I should be getting back to my house."  
  
"Wow, I never thought about it before but. where do you live Kohaku?" Chihiro wanted to know, unable to imagine her river god friend actually having a normal house, like Rin's.  
  
"Only a little ways away," he admitted, startling Chihiro further. He really DID have his own house. weird.  
  
"Oh," she settled upon saying, abruptly looking a bit downcast at the realization that she would be leaving Kohaku for the day. But she had just been reunited with him. Chihiro suddenly felt a bout of possessiveness over her friend, who, it seemed, every time she parted with she tended not to see again until something very bad happened to them both. "Um."  
  
"Hm, well, I'm going to hit the sack, see you both later I guess!" Rin blurted quickly, seeing the awkward air between the two and deciding she was most likely not needed just then. Ah, young love.  
  
"Bye," they voiced distantly, as Kohaku stood, Chihiro following him, while never tearing her gaze away.  
  
"So I'll see you tomorrow then?" Chihiro needed to know as she escorted Kohaku to the door, both still slightly wet from Yumei falls. Kohaku smiled kindly down on his best friend.  
  
"Of course," Kohaku said. "I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow, and after that, I'm sure."  
  
"Good!" Chihiro chirped, looking a bit relieved. "I . I want to see you as much as I can! Before." Chihiro took in a breath, the cold hand of despair gripping her heart briefly, before she forcefully pushed those emotions away, knowing Kohaku didn't need to see her like this. She might be saddened beyond belief but. but Kohaku didn't need to know that! Really, all she wanted to be was something for him to lean on when times got hard, as she knew they soon would for him. "I just want to see you! You're my best friend!" she settled for, plastering on a fake smile.  
  
Of course, Kohaku saw through her false cheer. He sighed, lifting up one hand and touching her cheek briefly. Suddenly, he looked utterly depressed, as Chihiro had never seen him before. One part of her wanted to be happy that she could be the only one that he would show this side of himself to. and another part just wanted to be miserable with him.  
  
"If there's one part of this whole scheme I truly regret. it's the fact that I'm going to have to leave you." He admitted, in a tone that made Chihiro blush. He turned, looking as though he were going to leave for the night, before Chihiro grabbed his arm, spinning him around once more.  
  
"I'm sorry!" she gasped softly, standing up on her toes to briefly kiss Kohaku on the cheek. The two shared a moment of connection, as they remembered the other night in the bathhouse, and the more intimate moments they had shared. before Kohaku turned on his heal and swiftly traveled up the stairs out onto the street without another word, a brief, pained expression coming over his features, and leaving the saddened Chihiro alone. She stood silently for a minute, eyes closed, letting the tears come only now that she was sure that the most important person in her life wouldn't have to watch her shed them.  
  
"I can do this," Chihiro sighed, viciously scrubbing away her salty tears with the back of her hand. "I'll be strong,"  
  
*  
  
Author's notes:  
  
I am so sorry for this short chapter; none of you deserve it after that terribly long wait. However I've just had finals, so I didn't really have time to crank out something longer. Hopefully the next chapter will be more substantial, but until then please bear with me.  
  
I've been thinking about the ending of this story, even though it's a ways off, and I have to warn you all, I'm going to get a little Green Peace on your asses. I'm thinking you've gathered that much from this chapter, what with the pollution and acid rain. Well, you know, I want this story to have a moral!  
  
All I ask is that everyone reviews, please! I promise that if a lot of people review, I'll have the next chapter out sooner. Like, a few weeks or something. Until next time,  
  
Rio Grande~ 


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